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HERO PATRIOTS 

OF THE 

NINETEENTH 
CENTURY 




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HERO PATRIOTS 

OF THE 

NINETEENTH 
CENTURY 



EDGAR SANDERSON, M.A. 

Sometime Scholar of Clare College, Cambridge 

AUTHOR OF "THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN THE NINE- 
TEENTH CENTURY," " HISTORY OF THE WORLD," 
"AFRICA IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY," "HIS- 
TORIC PARALLELS TO L AFFAIRE DREYFUS?' ETC. 



WITH PORTRAITS 



New York THOMAS Y. CROWELL & Co. 
Publishers la* ^ -«, iqoi 



$ 



4^ 



uwr 



CONTE NTS 



CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

THE PENINSULAR WAR I 

MARTIN DIAZ, STYLED EL EJVIPECINADO, THE SPANISH GUERILLA 
CHIEF, 1809 — 1820 

Martin Diaz a " Martyred Patriot " — Guerilla Warfare in Spain 
— Napier's Testimony — The Chief Guerilla Leaders — Their 
Work for Spain — Mina's Exploits — Birth and Early Life of 
Diaz — His Popular Name, El Empecinado — His First Deeds 
as a Guerilla — His Person and Character — His Successes 
in 1810-1812 — Unsubdued to the Last — His Wonderful 
Escapes from Utmost Peril — The Scene at the Inn — The 
Treacherous Innkeeper — Appearance of Diaz — Saved by a 
Young French Officer — Diaz' Grateful Return for Kindness 
— Diaz' Adventure with another French Officer — The 
Guerilla Chiefs Marvellous Coolness — His Escape — Death 
of his Betrayer — Becomes a Champion of Freedom against 
Ferdinand VII. — His Arrest and Tragical Death — The 
Degradation of Spain. 

CHAPTER II 

THE TYROLESE WAR 1809 ..... 30 

ANDREAS HOFER J TEIMERJ SPECHBACHER ; HASPINGER 

Tyrol and the Tyrolese— Early History — Country becomes 
Subject to Austria — Attachment of People to House of 
Hapsburg— Resistance against Bavaria in 1703— Against 
the French in 1 797 — The Brave Peasant- Woman — The 
Tyrolese and Marshal Ney in 1805 — Country handed over 



vi Contents 

to Bavarian Rule (1806) — Bavarian Tyranny — Popular 
Feeling aroused — Andreas Hofer, the " Sandwirth," his 
Early Career — His Character as a Man and a Leader — 
Hofer and the Austrian Government — The Archduke John 
— A Rising planned — War between France and Austria — 
Personal Appearance and Costume of Hofer — The Time for 
Action arrives — Description of Teimer, Spechbacher, and 
Haspinger — The Rising of April, 1809 — The First Action 
of the War — The Peasants, Bavarians, and French at the 
Gorge of Brixen — Hofer and his Men victorious at Sterzing 
Moos — The Brave Tyrolese Girl — Spechbacher and his 
Followers in the Inn Valley — His Capture of Hall — 
Tyrolese Women escort Bavarian Prisoners — Teimer 
arrives in aid — The Patriots capture Innsbruck — French 
and Bavarians capitulate — Other Tyrolese Successes — Hofer 
clears the Southern Country — Napoleon's Wrath — A New 
Invasion of Tyrol by Marshal Lefebvre — Fierce Battle at 
the Strub Pass — Bavarians' Heavy Loss — Austrian General 
Chastelar defeated — Enemy advance on Innsbruck — 
Cruelty of French Troops — Marshal Lefebvre enters 
Innsbruck — Hofer driven back to Passeyr Valley — He 
raises Fresh Forces — Spechbacher's Grand Success — 
Occupies Innsbruck — Joins Hofer— The Tyrolese Victory 
at Berg Isel — Arrival of Teimer — Father Haspinger in 
Action — Another Brave Tyrolese Girl — Fierce Fighting — 
Hofer's Splendid Charge — Enemy retreat in Night — 
Innsbruck again won by Patriots — Further Successes of 
Tyrolese — Effect on Tyrolese Cause of Archduke Charles' 
Defeat at Wagram — The People abandoned by Austria — 
Tyrolese resolve to act alone — The " Sandwirth " chosen 
as Commander-in-Chief — Napoleon's Resolve to crush 
Resistance — Marshal Lefebvre with Great Force enters 
Innsbruck — Hofer's Memorable Reply to Demand for 
Surrender — His March from the Passeyr Valley — Spech- 
bacher and Haspinger again in the Field — Desperate 
Resistance to Lefebvre's Advance on Brixen — The Tyrolese 
"Stone-Batteries " — The French Marshal driven back near 
Sterzing — Hofer and Spechbacher defeat him at Sterzing 
Moos — Lefebvre retires to Innsbruck — The Great Battle of 
Berg Isel — Hofer, Haspinger, and Spechbacher in Command 
— Tyrolese at first repulsed — The Patriots rally — Lefebvre 
finally beaten with Loss of Guns — He abandons Innsbruck 
— Tyrolese, for the Third Time, have their Capital — Hofer's 
Triumphal Entry — Calms the Excited Patriots — Assumes 



Contents vii 

PAGE 

Office as Governor of Tyrol — His Simple Manners — His 
Excellent Rule — Austrian Emperor confirms Hofer's Position 
— Tyrolese Dismay on News of Treaty of Schonbrunn — 
Tyrol abandoned to Napoleon — New Invasions by French 
and Bavarians in Immense Force — Spechbacher defeated 
at Strub Pass — Hofer, about to submit, roused by Haspinger 
— The Struggle revived — Bavarian Cruelties — Tyrolese 
defeated at Berg Isel — Hofer bids Peasants lay down 
Arms — Retires to Passeyr Valley — The " Sandwirth " 
again in Field — His and Haspinger's Successes — The 
Patriots overcome by Superior Forces — Hofer in Conceal- 
ment near his Home — Atrocious Cruelty of Bavarians — 
Haspinger escapes to Vienna — Spechbacher's Romantic 
Adventures — His Marvellous Escapes — Hofer's Life in 
Hiding — His Refusal to escape to Vienna — Price set on his 
Head — A Tyrolese Traitor — Hofer seized at Last — Cruel 
Treatment of the Hero — His Passage down Passeyr Valley 
— Generous Behaviour of French Commander, Baraguay 
d'Hilliers — Hofer conveyed to Mantua — Tried by Court 
Martial at Napoleon's Order — The "Corsican's" Cruelty 
and Duplicity — French General Bisson tries to save Hofer 
— The Patriot refuses Conditions — His Death by shooting 
at Mantua— Relics of the Hero at Innsbruck — Final 
Interment at Capital of Tyrol — The Monument in the 
Great Church — Spechbacher and Haspinger lie beside him. 

CHAPTER III 

THE GREEK WAR OF INDEPENDENCE l82I — 1827 . 73 

A GROUP OF HEROES : GEORGIOS KARAISKAKIS ; MARKOS 
BOZZARIS ; ANDREAS MIAULIS J KONSTANTINOS KANARIS 

Greek Independence — How effected — Character of Struggle — 
Greece in 18th Century — Effect of French Revolution — 
Chief Elements of Greek Population — The Primates — The 
Klephts — Turkish Oppression — The Poet Pheraeos — Rising 
Spirit of Revolution — Sultan Mahmoud II. — Failure of 
First Insurrection — The Rising in Southern Greece — Cruel 
Deeds of Greeks — Events in the Morea — Kolokotrones — 
Rising North of Morea — State of Athens — Christians 
blockade Acropolis — Mesolonghi in Revolt — Successes of 
Patriots — The Naval Contest — Islands of Hydra, Psara, 
and Spetzas — More Greek Cruelty — Greek Raids on Asia 



viii Contents 

PAGE 

Minor — The Rival Fleets meet — The Greek Leader Miaulis 
— Greek Fire-ships at Work — Turkish Cruelties — Fighting 
in the Morea — Turks defeated — Navarin taken by Greeks 
— Bad Conduct of Greek Leaders — Success of Egyptian 
Squadron against Greeks — The Hapless Fate of Scio 
(Khios) — Greek Fleet in Action — Turkish Liner destroyed 
by Fire-ship — The War in Western Greece (1822) — Markos 
Bozzaris — Greeks defeated at Petta — The First Siege of 
Mesolonghi — Turkish Assault repulsed — Greeks capture 
Acropolis of Athens — The Morea invaded by Sultan's 
Forces — Greek Victories — The Brave Leader Niketas — 
Capture of Nauplia — Greek and Turkish Fleets — Kanaris 
burns Turkish Liner — Campaign of 1 823 — Heroism and 
Death of Bozzaris — The Greek Mariners on Asiatic Coast 
— Lord Byron's Arrival and Death — His Opinion of 
Greeks — Waste of Money contributed for Greek Cause — 
Sultan Mahmoud's New Policy — Revives Turkish Naval 
Power — Aided by Mehemet Ali of Egypt — Turks capture 
Psara and Kasos — Skilful Operations — The Men of Hydra 
and Spetzas at Sea — Actions with Turkish and Egyptian 
Vessels — Energy of Miaulis — Morea invaded by Ibrahim 
Pasha — Capture of Navarin — Greek Defeats in Morea — 
The Second Siege of Mesolonghi — Heroic Defence — Greek 
and Turkish Fleets in Conflict — Repulse of Turkish Attacks 
on Mesolonghi — Karaiskakis arrives to aid Greeks — Ibrahim 
Pasha joins Besiegers — Greek Vessels come up — Assaults 
repulsed at Mesolonghi — The Great Sortie — Part of 
Garrison escape — The Place taken by Turks — Ibrahim 
ravages the Morea — Turkish Siege of Athens — Karaiskakis' 
Efforts for Relief — Siege of the Acropolis — Relieving 
Forces defeated — Acropolis surrendered — End of Struggle 
by Gree s. 

CHAPTER IV 

THE SOUTH AMERICAN REVOLUTION . . . . 1 28 

SIMON BOLIVAR, l8ll — 183O 

Simon Bolivar, El Libertador — His early Career — Gross Misrule 
of Spanish Colonies in South America — Rising at Caracas 
in 1810 — Bolivar joins the Venezuelan Revolt — Is obliged 
to surrender Puerto Cabello — Retires to Cartagena — Takes 
Field in New Granada — His success against Ro3^alists — 



Contents ix 

Invades Venezuela — Atrocious Cruelty of Spaniards — 
Bolivar's Campaign of 1813 — Spanish General Monteverde 
defeated — Bolivar enters Caracas in Triumph — The 
Llaneros of the Orinoco join the Patriots — The Margaritans 
— Monteverde again defeated — Campaign of 1814 — Success 
of Royalists under Boves — Bolivar defeated — Caracas 
and La Guayra taken by Spaniards — Bolivar in New 
Granada — Captures Santa Fe — Large Reinforcements 
arrive from Spain — Spanish General Morillo successful — 
Bolivar retires to Jamaica (1815J — Morillo seizes Santa 
Fe (Bogota) — Cruelties — Spanish attempt to assassinate 
Bolivar in Jamaica — He goes to Haiti (Santa Domingo) — 
Aided by a Dutchman, Luis Brion — Renews Venezuelan 
War in December 1816 — His Heroic Conduct — Joined by 
Paez, Llanero Leader — Campaign of 1 81 7 — Bolivar defeats 
Morillo — Paez successful — Bolivar at Angostura — Campaign 
of 1818 — Great Success of Patriots — Bolivar's Grand 
Campaign — Venezuelan Independence proclaimed — Cam- 
paign of 1819 — Bolivar in Supreme Power — Joined by a 
British " Legion " — His General Success in Field — Invades 
New Granada — His Great March across the Cordilleras — 
Difficulties overcome — The Scene among the Mountains — 
Arrival on New Field of Action — Spaniards defeated — 
Courage of British Infantry — Bolivar's Dashing Leadership 
— His Great Victory at Boyaca (August 17, 1819) — 
Triumphant Entry into Bogota (Santa Fe) — Bolivar 
appointed President of New Granada Republic — Returns 
to Angostura — His Reception by the People — Venezuela 
and New Granada United as "Republic of Colombia" — 
Bolivar, as President, troubled b}^ Dissensions — A Six- 
months' Truce with Royalists — Renewal of War — Cam- 
paign of 1821 — Bolivar's Rapid Success — Santa Marta 
stormed — His Victory at Carabobo, in Venezuela — He 
captures La Guayra — Grand Entry into Caracas — Spaniards 
cleared out of Colombia — Bolivar in Peru — General Sucre's 
Victory for Patriots at Pichincha — Bolivar enters Lima and 
receives Dictatorial Authority — Independence of South 
American States recognised — Bolivar again in Field against 
Spanish Forces — Grand Review of his Army — He defeats 
the Royalists— Resigns his Peruvian Dictatorship and 
returns to Colombia (1826) — Upper Peru becomes " Bolivia" 
— Attempts on his Life by Royalist Party — Assailed by 
Calumny— His Great Scheme for South America — Move- 
ment against his Measures in Peru — The Country pacified 



Contents 

— Bolivar in Supreme Power in Colombia (1828) — Civil 
Strife arises— Bolivar resigns Office ( 1 830)— His Death- 
Character of Bolivar — His Great Services — In Advance of 
his Age — Honours to his Memory at a Later Day. 



CHAPTER V 

ABD-EL-KADER, 1833 — 1847 T 5 8 

Abd-el-Kader, a Truly Great Mohammedan — Eulogy by Marshal 
Soult — His Grand Position in Nineteenth Century — Birth 
and Early Life — Precocious Ability — His Father's High 
Character — The Hero in Early Manhood — His Personal 
Appearance — Equestrian Skill — High Reputation among 
Arabs of Algeria — Pilgrimage to Mecca — Returns to Algeria 
(1828) — A Period of Religious Seclusion — Description of 
Algeria — The People — The Kabyles — Cause of Quarrel with 
France — Turkish Mode of Rule — Application of Arab 
Patriots to Mahhi-ed-Din — The Rising against the French 
Invaders — Defeat of French under General Bourmont — 
Abd-el-Kader in Council — His First Action with French — 
His Marvellous Courage — A Leader needed for Arabs — 
Abd-el-Kader chosen — His Reception at Mascara — Grand 
Review of Arab Warriors — Abd-el-Kader's Measures and 
Way of Life — Conflicts with the French under General 
Desmichels — Abd-el-Kader subdues Native Opponents — 
He again defeats Desmichels — Further Arab Success — 
Desmichels makes Treaty with the Sultan — His Conflicts 
with Disaffected Arabs — Enforces Submission — Organises 
Government of Oran — Spread of his Fame and Power — 
Count D'Erlon as New French Governor-General — Abd-el 
Kader's Skilful Diplomacy— His Defeats of General Trezel 
at the Sig and the Macta — D'Erlon recalled — Succeeded 
by Marshal Clausel — the New Governor-General's Pro- 
clamation — Abd-el-Kader's First Success against Clausel 
— The Sultan's Defeat — Meeting with his Mother — Tribes 
rally round Abd-el-Kader — His Noble Spirit — He defeats 
Clausel — The Sultan's Marvellous Energy — Fierce Courage 
of his Men — French General Bugeaud's Victory at the 
Sikkah — Abd-el-Kader's New System of Warfare — Clausel 
again Governor-General — Harassed by Sultan — Abd-el- 
Kader makes with Bugeaud the " Treaty of the Tafna " 
— A Triumph for the Sultan — His Success over Hostile 



Contents xi 

PAGE 

Tribes— His Political Work in 1839— His Great Fame— 
His Grand Ideal for the Arabs— Adhesion of the Kabyles— 
Renewed Warfare with French -The New Governor- 
General, Marshal Valee — His Base Treachery— Abd-el- 
Kader takes the Field — Conflict in the Mountains — The 
French Victorious— The Sultan returns to Irregular 
Warfare — The French severely harassed — Arrival of 
General Bugeaud — His New System of Warfare — His Able 
Subordinates— The Campaign of 1841 — Abd-el-Kader's 
Skilful Movements — Campaign of 1842 — Indecisive Results 
— French gaining Ground slowly — The Sultan forms his 
Smala— His Kindly Deeds— The Bishop of Algiers— Abd- 
el-Kader's Treatment of Captives — The Capture and 
Dispersal of the Smala — A Terrible Blow — The Hero 
struggles on — His Wonderful Courage — Appeals to British 
Government — The Sultan declines the Throne of Morocco — 
Campaigns of 1844 and 1845 — Marshal Bugeaud again in 
Field— His System of Warfare— Abd-el-Kader's Movements 
— Campaign of 1846 — The Sultan in Morocco — Decline of 
his Cause — French Eulogy of a Great Man — Campaign of 
1847 — Sultan defeats Moroccan Forces — His Return to 
Algiers — Surrenders himself to Lamoriciere — Sent to France 
— Violation of French Pledge — End of Abd-el-Kader's Public 
Career — His Grand Character — Four Years' Imprisonment 
in France — Louis Napoleon's Efforts on his Behalf — The 
ex-Sultan insists on Fulfilment of French Promise — His 
Life in Captivity — Released by Louis Napoleon — His 
Reception in Paris — Leaves France for Broussa — Visits 
France — Settles at Damascus— His Noble Conduct in i860 
— Abd-el-Kader's Decorations from European Powers — 
Receives Letter from Schamyl — Visits Mecca and Medina — 
In Paris and England — His Death (1883) — Marvellous 
Character of his Career. 

CHAPTER VI 

SCHAMYL OF THE CAUCASUS 1824 — 1859 . . 236 

The Caucasus in Legend and History — Region as viewed from 
Mount Ararat — The Lofty Peaks — The Rivers — The Two 
Chief Passes — The Fine Scenery — The Various Peoples — 
First Russian Aggression — General Paskiewitch — His 
Plan of Conquest — Russian Opeiations — Defeat of General 
Williamenoff— The Campaign cf 1839 — End of Warfare in 



xii Contents 

PAGE 

Circassia Proper— Birth and Early Life of Schamyl— His 
Youthful Character and Mental Training— Social and 
Political Condition of Eastern Caucasia — Schamyl's First 
Appearance in Field — His First Escape — Death in Battle 
of Caucasian Leader — Schamyl's Second Escape, with 
Bad Wound — His Recovery and Appointment as Leader 
— Schamyl's Personal Appearance and Qualifications — The 
Campaign of 1836 — Success of Caucasians — Schamyl's 
" Crusade " — General Golovine in Command for Russia — 
The Siege of Akhulgo — Russian Assaults repulsed — 
Terrible Losses of Assailants — Final Success of Russians 
— Schamyl's Mysterious Escape — His Zealous Efforts — 
Guerilla Warfare maintained — Campaign of 1842 — General 
Grabbe's Advance against Dargo — The Caucasians drive 
back Enemy with Severe Loss — Woronzoff in Command 
for Russia — His Plan of Operations — His Advance on 
Dargo — Desperate Resistance of Caucasians — Dargo cap- 
tured — Woronzoff barely rescued — Schamyl's Raids — His 
Daring Campaign in 1846 — Complete Success — Warfare 
of 1847 — Akhulgo captured by Russians (1849) — Gradual 
Decline of Caucasian Power — The Crimean War — The 
Struggle in Caucasus resumed — Schamyl at last succumbs 
— Effect of his Rule in Caucasia — His Honourable Treat- 
ment by Russians — His Life at Kaluga — Death at Medina 
— His Lasting Fame. 

CHAPTER VII 

DANIELE MANIN (1831 — 1849) AND GIUSEPPE GARI- 
BALDI (1847 — i860) ...... 267 

The Freedom of Italy — The Country as settled in 181 5 — 
The Patriot Mazzini — Pope Pius IX. — The Movement 
for Freedom in 1848 — Manin's Noble Career — His Birth 
and Early Life — His Excellent Political Methods — His 
Arrest by Austrian Tyrants — Austrian "Justice" ex- 
posed — Progress of Revolution in Italy — Manin released — 
The Rising in Venice — Capture of the Arsenal — Manin's 
Daring — Venice all in Arms — Expulsion of Austrian Au- 
thorities — A Republic proclaimed — Failure of Revolution 
in Italy — Manin and the Venetians alone against Austria — 
Blockade of Venice — Preparations for Defence — Zealous 
Devotion of the People — Manin chosen "Dictator" — His 
Diplomatic Efforts in behalf of Venice — The Terrible 



Contents xiii 

Tidings from Novara — General Haynau in Command 
against Venice — New Preparations for Resistance — The 
Patriotic Jews — Complete blockade established — Demean- 
our of Citizens — The Lines of Defence — The Fortress of 
Malghera— Other Chief Works — Austrian Bombardment 
begins — Radetzky disappointed — Stout Resistance made 
— Departure of Haynau — The Bombardment renewed — 
Terrible Effect of Fire — Malghera and Other Forts aban- 
doned — Austrian Troops blown up — Continuance of Siege 
— Determined Resistance — New Bombardment — The 
Bombs from Balloons — Sufferings of Besiegers — The City 
ravaged by Shot and Shell — Calm Endurance of Venetians 
— Assailed at last by Famine and Cholera — Capitulation of 
Venice — Manin's Escape to France — Domestic Calamities — 
His Hard Lot as an Exile — Death deeply mourned in 
Venice — Meanness of Austrian Tyrants — Transfer of his 
Remains from Paris — Monument erected — Garibaldi, his 
Place in History — His Noble Character — Origin of Family 
— Birth, Parents, Early Life — Personal Appearance — His 
Interview with Mazzini — Garibaldi a Conspirator — Flees 
for His Life — Sails for South America — Brilliant Action 
for Freedom in Brazil and Argentine State — Garibaldi's 
Great Purpose for Italy — Sails for Europe (1848) with Men 
of Italian Legion — The Revolutionary Movement in Italy 
— Failure of the Cause — Garibaldi's Adventures — The 
" Roman Republic " — Garibaldi a Defender of Rome — His 
Defeat of French Forces — Fights against Neapolitan Troops 
at Velletri — His Narrow Escape — Returns to Rome — City 
forced to surrender — Garibaldi's Flight — Death of his 
Wife — Again an Exile — Life in New York — Again at Sea 
— Returns to Nice — Fights against Austria in 1859 — The 
Year of Glory (i860) for Garibaldi — The Landing of "The 
Thousand " at Marsala — The March on Palermo — His 
Victory at Calatafimi — Garibaldi's Tactics at Monreale — 
Brilliant Success — He forces Entrance into Palermo — 
The Final Conquest of Sicily — He crosses to Italy — His 
Triumphal March — Enters Naples a Conqueror — Victories 
at the Volturno and Caserta Vecchia— His Qualities as a 
Commander — Michelet's Eulogy of Garibaldi — His Honours 
to Mazzini on Death — The Hero's Noble Poverty — Use 
made of National Gift — His Declining Health — Visits to 
Milan and Messina — His Death — Honours paid to Memory 
— The Dirge of Neapolitan Women. 



HERO PATRIOTS 

OF 

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 



CHAPTER I 
THE PENINSULAR WAR 

MARTIN DIAZ, STYLED EL EMPECINADO, THE SPANISH 
GUERILLA CHIEF, 1809 — 1820 

Martin Diaz a "Martyred Patriot" — Guerilla Warfare in Spain — Napier's 
Testimony — The Chief Guerilla Leaders — Their Work for Spain — 
Mina's Exploits — Birth and Early Life of Diaz — His Popular Name, 
El Empecinado — His First Deeds as a Guerilla — His Person and 
Character — His Successes in 1810-1812 — Unsubdued to the Last— 
His Wonderful Escapes from Utmost Peril — The Scene at the Inn — 
The Treacherous Innkeeper — Appearance of Diaz — Saved by a Young 
French Officer — Diaz' Grateful Return for Kindness — Diaz' Adven- 
ture with another French Officer — The Guerilla Chief's Marvellous 
Coolness — His Escape — Death of his Betrayer — Becomes a Cham- 
pion of Freedom against Ferdinand VII. — His Arrest and Tragical 
Death — The Degradation of Spain. 

" r I ^HE most triumphant death," writes Southey, in his 
JL Life of 'Nelson , "is that of the martyr; the most awful 
that of the martyred patriot ; the most splendid that of the 
hero in the hour of victory." The destiny of the first man 
on our " fame's eternal bede-roll " of hero-patriots in the 
nineteenth century brought him into the second of these 



2 Ibero patriots 

classes. Martin Diaz was, if ever man deserved the title, 
a martyred patriot. He fought for his country against the 
invading forces of Napoleon. He died on the scaffold, a 
victim to the cruelty and perfidy of Ferdinand VII. of 
Spain, the monarch whom he had helped, according to 
the measure of his ability and resources, to replace upon the 
throne. 

"Guerilla," or petty warfare, a diminutive of the Spanish 
word guerra^ war, is the origin of the name guerillas, applied 
to the light-armed irregular fighters who, notably in Spain, 
have from time to time maintained a patriotic struggle against 
foreign invaders, or taken opposite sides in civil war. In 
the spring of the year 1809 much of Spain seemed crushed 
and helpless in the grasp of the great French conqueror. 
The Spanish regular armies had been severely defeated at 
Molino del Rey, Medellin, and in other actions. Saragossa, 
after one gallant and successful defence, had succumbed 
before the attacks of the able and energetic Marshal Lannes. 
Sir John Moore, in the face of overwhelming force, had 
retreated to Coruna. Joseph Bonaparte was back in Madrid. 
In this position of affairs came again to pass that which was 
written by Macaulay concerning the contest waged in the 
corresponding period of the previous century, the War of the 
Succession in Spain : " There is no country in Europe which 
it is so easy to overrun as Spain ; there is no country in 
Europe which it is more difficult to conquer. Nothing can 
be more contemptible than the regular military resistance 
which Spain offers to an invader ; nothing more formidable 
than the energy which she puts forth when her regular military 
resistance has been beaten down. Her armies have long 
borne too much resemblance to mobs ; but her mobs have 
had, in an unusual degree, the spirit of armies. The soldier, 
as compared with other soldiers, is deficient in military 
qualities ; but the peasant has as much of those qualities as 
the soldier." 



Spantsb Guerillas 3 

It must not, of course, be supposed for a moment that 
Spain owed her deliverance from Napoleon's power mainly, 
as Spanish vanity has affirmed, to Spanish energy and 
valour. As the country was freed from British and German 
intervention, in the early years of the eighteenth century, 
by French troops under the Duke of Berwick, so was she 
delivered from French invaders, in the early years of the 
nineteenth century, by the British troops of Wellington. The 
Spanish irregulars gave important aid, as a brief summary of 
their operations will show. The guerilla bands, which made 
their first appearance in 1809, varied greatly in their composi- 
tion and character. Some differed little from hordes of 
brigands, and included, as Napier declares, " every robber 
who feared a jail, or could break from one; every smuggler 
whose trade had been interrupted ; every friar disliking the 
trammels of his convent ; every idler who wished to avoid 
the ranks of the regular army." There were guerilla chiefs 
who, in the necessity of providing subsistence for their men, 
and with the desire of attracting and attaching followers, 
freely plundered their own countrymen, and became, in 
various districts, a scourge to Spain. Other chiefs, actuated 
by nobler motives, by revenge for their country's wrongs, by 
a gallant spirit, and by honest ambition, thought to serve 
their country better as guerillas than they could by joining 
the regular forces. The better class of irregular fighters was 
composed of peasants who, in the heat of patriotic zeal and 
religious fanaticism, took up arms against the French, and 
chose leaders, whom they served without being paid or 
dressed in uniform. Success in their peculiar mode of warfare 
helped to sustain the confidence of the people in the final issue 
of the struggle, and encouraged them in determined resist- 
ance. The guerillas' knowledge of the country, especially of 
the by-paths and short cuts among the mountains, combined 
with their endurance and swiftness of foot, was of great 
value in conveying intelligence to the British leaders, while 



4 1bero patriots 

heartfelt hatred of the French was, in general, a sure guarantee 
of fidelity to the cause of Spain. There were, as the war 
proceeded, many thousands of guerillas who joined Wellington's 
forces, and, after undergoing a course of discipline, rendered 
good service as regular troops. We need not here enter into 
the question of the merits and defects of guerilla warfare as 
against disciplined invaders. The testimony of Sir William 
Napier is clear and emphatic : " This great unquestionable 
advantage was derived from the guerillas, and especially by 
the British; that the French could never communicate with 
each other, nor combine their movements, except by the slow 
method of sending officers with strong escorts ; whereas their 
adversaries could correspond by post, and even by telegraph ; 
an advantage equal to a reinforcement of fifty thousand men." 
Among the principal guerilla leaders may be named 
Renovales and the two Minas in Navarre and Aragon ; 
Porlier in the Asturias ; Longa in Biscay ; Julian Sanchez 
in the Gata and Salamanca country; Doctor Rovera and 
Perena in Catalonia ; the curate Merino, El Principe, and 
Saormil, in Castile ; the friar Sapia about Soria ; Nebot in 
Valencia — and the man selected as a noble type of his class, 
to whom we hope to render his rights anon. Rovera, Julian 
Sanchez, and the student Mina showed military talents, and 
Sanchez was a very bold and honest man. Espoz y Mina, 
the uncle and successor of the student, became very con- 
spicuous, being a man of sound judgment, surprising energy, 
and constant spirit. By birth a peasant, he despised the 
higher orders of his own country, and never would suffer 
any hidalgo (member of the lower-class nobility) to join his 
band. From 1809 until the end of the war he held the 
provinces bordering on the Ebro, and, though often defeated 
and chased from place to place, he yet by degrees increased 
his force until, in 181 2, he was at the head of more than ten 
thousand men, regularly paid and supplied by different means, 
mainly through British succours brought by sea, and also 



Guerilla Morfe 5 

through an agreement with the French generals, by which 
everything but warlike stores, coining from France, had his 
safe-conduct on paying a duty. 

In a rapid survey of guerilla work we note that in June, 
1809, Mina, the student, was active in the region between 
Tudela and Pampeluna. The people of the high Pyrenean 
valleys of Roncal, Salazar, Anso, and Echo, took arms under 
Renovales. This officer, captured at Saragossa, had broken 
his parole, but he pleaded a previous breach of the capitulation. 
His chief post was the convent of San Juan de la Pena, 
built upon a rock remarkable in Spanish history as a place 
of refuge maintained with success against the Moorish 
conquerors. The bodies of twenty-two kings of Aragon rested 
there, and the Aragonese fondly believed it impregnable. 
There were twenty thousand armed men in the various bands 
of this region, who at once set to work in cutting off isolated 
men, intercepting couriers and convoys, and attacking detach- 
ments of the French army. The student Mina, after keeping 
Navarre in commotion by hardy and sudden enterprises, was 
ultimately captured by the skilful and energetic French 
general, Suchet, and was succeeded, as we have seen, by his 
uncle Espoz y Mina. 

The general operations of the guerillas constitute a record, 
as detailed by Napier, of such purport as " The bands in the 
mountains continued to vex the French communications " ; 
"the Catalans kept cutting off minor convoys, detachments, 
and even considerable bodies isolated by the momentary 
absence of the main French army." As the regular armies 
of Spain disappeared under the pressure of constant defeat, 
the bands of guerillas, in 1810, suddenly and surprisingly 
increased. The regency formed secret guerilla juntas or 
committees to collect stores and provisions for the irregulars 
in secure places. District inspectors and paymasters, selected 
by regular general officers, superintended the discipline and 
payment of the bands. Particular districts were charged with 



6 Ifoero patriots 

the furnishing of supplies, and every province was divided 
into three portions, each to find its quota of men and horses 
separately, but all to act together when circumstances de- 
manded their union — in fact, all the internal organisation of 
a regular army was secretly arranged, while the external form 
was irregular. Towards the end of * 1810, the chief, Porlier, 
was actively engaged in cutting off small parties of French 
in the north, and forcing the people to flee with their effects 
to the mountains whenever the French troops drew near. 
Campillo's chief aim was to intercept French despatches 
between Bilbao and Santander. In May, 181 1, the redoubt- 
able Mina defeated, in a pass near Vitoria, twelve hundred 
men, escorting prisoners and treasure to France. This success 
was alloyed by the death of two hundred of the Spanish 
prisoners killed in the tumult, and horribly stained by the 
cold-blooded murder, after the fight, of six Spanish ladies 
attached to French officers. The illustrious French marshal 
Massena had a narrow escape. His baggage was taken, and 
he was to have gone back to France with this convoy, but 
remained behind at Vitoria, disliking the discipline of the 
escort, over which he had no control, as he was under 
Napoleon's summons of recall to France, and had been 
replaced by Marmont. 

In September, 181 1, we find Eroles, the Catalan chief, 
forcing the surrender of five hundred men forming the gar- 
risons of two little towns, and thus seizing the whole line 
of French communication between Lerida and Barcelona. 
He then actually crossed the mountains into French territory, 
defeated some national guards, raised contributions, and 
burned a town. The guerilla warfare seemed interminable, 
and the French commanders were constantly harassed. In 
the spring of 1812 the lines of correspondence with France, 
in the north of Spain, and between the French generals in 
the field, were made so insecure that Napoleon was con- 
stantly urging his generals to seize every lull in Wellington's 



/IIMna's Exploits 7 

warfare to " put down the bands." The struggle was 
unhappily marked by atrocious deeds on the part of some 
of the patriotic leaders, sometimes in cruel revenge for 
French severities. The curate Merino, in April, 1812, having 
taken about a hundred French prisoners, hanged them all 
— sixty in retaliation for three members of the local junta 
put to death by the French ; the others in the proportion of 
ten for each soldier of his who had been shot by the enemy ! 
The change in public feeling between the earlier and the 
closing years of the nineteenth century may be noted in 
the fact that these murders of Merino were recorded with 
complacency in the London newspapers and met with no 
public reprobation. 

The energy of Mina was conspicuously displayed at this 
time. In February, 181 2, he repulsed a French attack near 
Lodosa, in Aragon, and then maintained a distant blockade 
of Saragossa. In March, he captured one of General Suchet's 
convoys, and retired with his booty to a mountain village. 
There he was betrayed to a French general, who came upon 
him so suddenly with a brigade of the army of the Ebro that 
he escaped death with difficulty. He soon reappeared, and, 
reaching the defiles of Navas Tolosa, behind Vitoria, having 
still five thousand men at his command, he defeated, on 
April 7, a Polish regiment escorting an enormous convoy. 
The booty consisted of treasure, Spanish prisoners, baggage, 
army-followers, and officers retiring to France. All the Spanish 
prisoners, numbering four hundred, were released, and at once 
joined Mina's band, and a million of francs fell into his hands, 
besides the equipages, arms, stores, and a quantity of church 
plate. On April 28 he captured another convoy going from 
Valencia to France, but was then assailed, in movements 
admirably combined, by the French general, Abbe, governor 
of Navarre, a commander who afterwards fought with great 
ability and energy under Soult in the Pyrenees against 
Wellington, and was now declared by Mina "to be the 



s 1bero patriots 

most formidable of all his opponents." After a series of 
actions in the last week of May, the Spanish chief, in bad 
plight and with the utmost difficulty, escaped, and all the 
bands in the north were, for a time, discouraged. 

No temporary failures could, however, make an end of the 
guerilla warfare. Towards the end of 1812, Mina, in spite of 
Abbe, then commanding in Pampeluna, and of other French 
generals, was intercepting all communication with France, and 
on November 22 he surprised and drove back to Saragossa 
with loss a very large convoy. Towards the end of December, 
in a severe action on some heights, his troops were defeated 
and dispersed, but the French lost seventy men in the fight, 
and within a few weeks the indomitable guerilla chief took 
the field again with forces more numerous than he had ever 
before commanded. About the same time, the leader called 
" The Frayle " surprised an ordnance convoy, took several guns 
and four hundred horses, and killed in cold blood, after the 
combat, a hundred artillerymen and officers. A French 
movable column destroyed his depots and many of his men, 
but the leader escaped and soon reappeared upon the 
communications. The loss of this convoy was the first 
disgrace of the kind which had befallen the army of Aragon, 
and Suchet declared that " a battle would have cost him less." 

As the war continued, the guerilla warfare became ever more 
formidable to the French commanders in Spain, and that at a 
time when the invading forces were weakened by the with- 
drawal of the " Young Guard " and many thousands of other 
choice troops in order to support Napoleon in his desperate 
conflict with the allies in Germany in 18 13. The French 
troops in Spain were kept ever struggling in the meshes of this 
irregular, insurrectional warfare. The chiefs, aided by British 
supplies, were acting, in the northern parts of the country, in 
concert with our naval squadrons. They possessed fortified 
posts and harbours ; their bands were swelling to the size of 
armies ; their military knowledge of the country and of the 



jftencb Difficulties 9 

French system of invasion was more matured ; their depots 
were better concealed, and they could at times bear the shock 
of battle on nearly equal terms. New and large bands of 
a more respectable and influential kind were formed in Biscay 
and Navarre, where insurrectional juntas were organised of 
men from the best families voluntarily enrolled, and not 
obnoxious, like some of the lower class guerilla chiefs, for 
rapine and violence. In Biscay alone several battalions, each 
mustering a thousand men, were in the field, and the com- 
munication with France was so interrupted that the minister of 
war in Paris only heard of King Joseph of Spain receiving his 
despatches, dated January 4, on March 18. The contri- 
butions could no longer be collected, the magazines could not 
be filled, the fortresses were endangered, the armies had no 
base of operations, the insurrection was spreading through 
Aragon, and the bands of the interior were increasing in 
numbers and activity. The French troops, sorely pressed for 
provisions, were widely scattered and everywhere occupied, 
and each general was averse to concentrate his own forces or 
to aid any colleague in other parts of the large field of 
operations. So formidable, to a very numerous, skilful, and 
highly disciplined invading force, can guerilla warfare become 
in Spain. 

In the spring of 181 3, we have Mina surprising and burning 
the castle of Fuenterrabia (Fontarabia), a picturesque old 
frontier town at the mouth of the Bidassoa, in a daring 
fashion. After this, with a force of five thousand men, and 
guns obtained from the British fleet off the coast, he invested 
Villa Real, within a few leagues of Vitoria, and repulsed six 
hundred men who came to its succour. Driven thence by 
superior forces, he gathered all the bands in Navarre and 
was soon master of the province, while the Pastor, Longa, 
Campillo, Merino, and other chiefs were ranging unmolested 
through Biscay and Castile. The skilful general Clausel, who 
had fought so ably against Wellington at Salamanca, when 



io f>ero patriots 

Marmont had been disabled by a wound, was placed by 
Napoleon in charge of operations against the guerillas of the 
north; but even he, stung by swarms on every side, could 
effect little permanent good. On April i, Mina defeated one 
of his columns with a loss of six hundred men. The same 
chieftain, beaten by Clausel in the middle of the month, and 
again in May with the loss of a thousand men, could not, by 
any measures, be hunted down to capture. As the French 
light cavalry entered a town where he was, at one end, he 
passed out at the other. He could not be overtaken, and, 
reappearing in Navarre, he organised resistance there so 
completely that the presence of a single man of his band in 
a village sufficed for the stoppage of any French courier 
without a strong escort. In the end, Clausel's troops were 
worn out with fatigue, and he was forced to declare that it 
would need fifty thousand men and three months' time to 
quell the insurrection entirely. The men were not to be 
had for that purpose, and the time never came. In the 
early summer of 1813, the British general, Wellington, "was 
again abroad in his strength, and the clang of his arms re- 
sounded through the Peninsula," as he advanced from the 
Portuguese frontier in the campaign crowned by his grand 
success at Vitoria, and at last, " emerging from the chaos of 
the Peninsula struggle, stood on the summit of the Pyrenees 
a recognised conqueror. From those lofty pinnacles the 
clangour of his trumpets pealed clear and loud, and the 
splendour of his genius appeared as a flaming beacon to 
warring nations." 

Such was the style 'of warfare in which the Spanish hero, 
El Empecinado, played a very conspicuous part. Don Juan 
Martin Diaz was born, the son of a peasant, in 1775, at 
the village of Castrillo, in the district of Valladolid, in the 
province of Old Castile. The familiar name El Empecinado^ 
under which he became endeared to his countrymen, means 
The Man of Wax (cobbler's wax, be it understood), and is 



jflfcartfn Bia3 " 

variously explained as an allusion to his very dark complexion, 
or to his native village being one where the men were mostly 
engaged in shoemakers' work. Not much is known of his 
early life. He entered the Spanish army in 1792, and served 
for some time as a private in a regiment of dragoons, acquiring 
there experience and skill which were destined to serve him 
well at a later day. Before the end of the century Diaz 
quitted the service, returned to his native district, married, 
and began a new career as a tiller of the soil. The invasion 
of his country by Napoleon's forces was a trumpet-call to 
instant action for a man so ardent in patriotism, so honest, 
generous and brave as Martin Diaz. He enrolled himself 
as a volunteer, and began operations against the common foe 
by taking ambush on the main road, to the north of Madrid, 
with a few peasants, his neighbours, of a spirit like his own. 
The slaying of one French courier was followed by carry- 
ing off the despatches borne by another. These first petty 
successes brought recruits to the little band led by Diaz, and 
successful attacks on small parties of Frenchmen gave him 
supplies of money, horses, arms, and ammunition. He was 
the first to organise the guerilla warfare with some system, 
and he soon showed that he possessed high qualifications 
for the part which he had undertaken to play in the cause of 
Spain. To enormous bodily strength he added a vast power 
of endurance of fatigue, readiness of resource, ingenuity of 
device, tenacity of purpose, perfect coolness in the moment of 
extreme peril. Failure seemed only to impel his elastic spirit 
to fresh effort. With the increase of his band, Diaz became 
bolder in his enterprises, and ventured to attack strongly 
escorted convoys. As his fame grew, he headed some thou- 
sands of men, and on one occasion he carried off the baggage 
of Marshal Moncey, which was under the charge of some 
battalions of French foot and several squadrons of dragoons. 
He thus became a chief whose name was a terror to the 
French, as it was a word of pride and power among the 



i2 ifoero patriots 

Spanish patriots ; a man with whom French generals, often 
unable to overtake him and force him to fight at advantage 
to themselves, were glad to treat for safe-conduct on terms 
beneficial to the Spanish cause. The supreme junta seated 
at Cadiz conferred on Diaz the rank of major-general. His 
feats of daring and ingenuity in his country's behalf would fill 
a volume of narrative. Before presenting our readers with 
a special page or two from his brilliant and exciting record, 
we will give a brief consecutive account of the chief operations 
in which Diaz was engaged during the contest of the 
guerillas with the French. To his great honour we can state 
that, as the loyal soldier of a noble cause, as a hero-patriot 
of high rank, he never stained his fame by the excesses and 
cruelties which disgraced some of the guerilla chiefs. 

In 1 8 10, the Empecinado, at the head of twelve hundred 
cavalry and infantry, was in the hills above Guadalajara, 
ranging the high ground as far as Cuenca, and sometimes 
venturing to give battle in the plain. Guadalajara is an 
ancient decayed town on the Henares, some forty miles north- 
east of Madrid. Cuenca, a picturesque city of Moorish 
origin, also a time-worn town declined from olden splendour, 
lies about eighty-five miles south-east-by-east of the capital, 
on a rocky hill-girt height, nearly 3,000 feet above sea-level, 
at the confluence of the Jucar and Huecar. The latter 
stream is spanned by a noble bridge 350 feet in length and 
150 feet in height above the water. In the fastnesses of this 
region Diaz was well placed for striking at convoys and detach- 
ments of the French foe approaching or quitting Madrid on the 
east, and his communication with Espoz y Mina, in Navarre, 
and with Longa and Campillo, who, at the head of above two 
thousand men, harassed Biscay and the neighbourhood of 
Vitoria, was maintained by Merino and other chiefs. In 
March, 181 1, we find the Empecinado engaged with and finally 
fleeing before, the French generals Paris and Abbe. In 
the autumn of the same year, however, he and the guerilla 



2>ia3' Hcbievements 13 

chief Duran, with six thousand foot and two thousand 
five hundred horse, marched against Calatayud (or Ayud's 
Castle), a city of Aragon, 150 miles north-east of Madrid, 
where a strongly fortified convent was held by French and 
Italian troops. The place is of interest as being mainly 
constructed out of the ruins of the ancient Bilbilis, the 
birthplace of the poet Martial, which lay about two miles 
to the east. In this enterprise Diaz and his men seized a 
pass blocking the road for a French relieving force, and his 
colleague was thus enabled to reduce the position. The 
French and Italian soldiers were, in fact, disputing about 
the means of defence, and could agree only on surrender. 
The Spaniards soon vanished before superior numbers, but 
they reoccupied the town and fortress when the French 
retired — a characteristic incident of the guerilla warfare. A 
few days later Diaz was overtaken and roughly handled by 
a French pursuing brigade. As we have already seen, the 
irregular warfare, conducted by men of boundless persistence, 
hardihood, and resource, was interminable, and a chiefs 
operations could be effectually stayed only when he was 
hunted down, taken, and shot. 

In May, 181 2, Diaz, ranging still the mountains of Cuenca 
and Guadalajara, pushed his parties close to Madrid; but 
in June, attacked in force by the French generals Paris and 
Palombini, he was driven off, and so sharply chased that his 
band dispersed and fled to the Somosierra hills north of 
Madrid. The indomitable chief, in August, after Wellington's 
victory over Marmont at Salamanca, is found investing Guada- 
lajara, having a French garrison of seven hundred men, whom 
he quickly forced to a surrender. In the next month he was 
actively engaged near Cuenca, and suffered another defeat; 
but October saw him, with Villa Campa and other leaders, 
blocking the road from Cuenca to Valencia. Towards the 
close of the year Diaz swooped down, with other chiefs, on 
Madrid. The capital was abandoned by King Joseph's 



14 1bero patriots 

garrison, and the guerillas entered the city, treating the people 
as foes, and remaining in possession until the king arrived 
with large forces, early in December, and drove them out. In 
February 1813 the Empecinado, heading two thousand foot 
and one thousand horse, was beaten in a fight with General 
Vichery, losing many men. Reinforced in his strongholds 
among the hills about Guadalajara, he was soon again dis- 
playing his old persistence by attacking a French detachment, 
capturing the baggage, and recovering a heavy contribution 
levied by his country's foes. A month later, he was defeated 
in an attempt to cut off a cavalry escort between Cuenca and 
Madrid, and he then regained his old haunts in the hills 
to the east of the capital. The patriot thus, often worsted, 
never daunted, incessantly striving and striking for Spain, 
was in the field, unsubdued, until Wellington's successes 
finally cleared the country of the intruders on her soil. 

We now give some adventures of our hero, strongly illus- 
trating his character as a guerilla chief and the nature of 
the struggle in which he was engaged. Two hours before 
sunset, on a fine evening in the month of August 1809, a 
party of about thirty French dragoons were assembled in the 
courtyard of a small venta, or roadside inn, in the province 
of Old Castile. The business in hand was of tragical import. 
Three men, one of them clad in the ordinary dress of a 
householder of the better class, the others wearing the motley 
garb, half-peasant and half-military, of the guerillas of the 
period, were kneeling with their hands bound behind, ten paces 
in front of a dozen of the Frenchmen, carbine in hand, waiting 
the word to fire. The contrast between the demeanour of 
the two guerillas and that of the third man was very striking. 
The two, about to die for Spain, gazed sternly on the soldiers 
with a mixed expression of unyielding fortitude and implacable 
hatred. The third, a traitor to his country, showed a counten- 
ance white with fear ; his frame was convulsed with terror ; 
large beads of moisture — the drops of death-agony in a coward 



Scene at Spanisb 3nn 15 

— stood on his temples and brow. The air was rent with 
his vain cries for mercy, while his companions showed, to 
a close observer, signs of conscious degradation in being 
classed by their executioners with such a craven cur. 

Two days previously, the Frenchmen had been escorting 
from Burgos, the head-quarters of their regiment, some 
waggons of ammunition for the garrison at Valladolid. They 
had halted at the little inn for some hours during the heat 
of the day, and the sergeant of the party, on paying the score, 
had denounced the quality of the wine, insisting on a supply 
of better stuff when, on the day after the morrow, the party 
should again halt on their return from Valladolid to Burgos. 
On that day they started from Valladolid at an early hour, 
under Captain Dubois, a veteran who had risen from the ranks 
under Bonaparte's eye. The type of a French officer of 
his period and class, he was at once sagacious, ready in 
resource, brave, and unscrupulous in the use of means to attain 
his end. When the venta was reached on the return journey, 
the officer dismounted, while the sergeant shouted to the 
innkeeper to open the courtyard gate for the admission of 
the troop. No response was given. The house was entered, 
but the host, in general its sole occupant, was nowhere to be 
seen. The sergeant himself opened the gates, and the men, 
after stabling their horses beneath a row of sheds filling one 
side of the quadrangular yard, and supplying them with 
provender, made free with the abundant food and liquor 
found in the house. 

Some hours later, when about a dozen of the dragoons, well 
primed with liquor, were seated in a room chanting the praises 
of la belle France and the glories of the Grande Armee^ the 
landlord made his appearance among them in a very sudden 
and ludicrous fashion. A sound of breaking sticks was heard ; 
a slight ceiling, composed of hurdle-work, forming the floor of 
a small loft, and extending over about half the room in which 
the men sat, gave way with a crash, and a man tumbled 



1 6 Ifoero patriots 

head-foremost into the centre of the astonished group. Sabres 
flashed from scabbards, as if to meet a sudden attack, but the 
hapless Jose fell on his knees, crying for mercy, and protesting 
his love for " the brave French." A peal of laughter, and the 
drinking of his health in his own wine, followed this recogni- 
tion, and then came inquiries as to the cause of his con- 
cealment. His lame excuse was that mere dread of the 
martial qualities of the Frenchmen had induced him to hide 
himself until their departure. The jovial party pretended 
to believe him, deeming it to their advantage in the reckoning 
that he could not know what they had really consumed. 
Captain Dubois, however, well aware of the need for unceasing 
vigilance in a land whose people, as a rule, regarded French- 
men with unalterable hatred, regarded the matter as one for 
anything rather than mirth. Summoning the landlord to 
his presence, he played with him at first as a cat with a 
mouse, and then, in a burst of rage, exclaimed, " Mark me ! 
in half an hour I leave this place, but I'll know your true 
reason for secreting yourself from my men, or before I go 
I'll hang you from the topmost bough of yonder tree ! " 
As the last minutes of the time fixed were passing, Jose's 
little courage gave way, and he received a promise that 
"he should not be hanged, if he made a candid and full 
confession." 

These words were, in fact, a sentence of death for the 
Spanish innkeeper. He had been playing the dangerous 
game of trying to "run with the hare and hunt with the 
hounds," and a "candid and full confession" to Captain 
Dubois was precisely what he could not afford to make. He 
had been in communication with a neighbouring guerilla 
chief whose name was rapidly rising into fame, and had 
undertaken to let him know, through artful inquiries among 
the French dragoons, by which of two routes the party would 
march, on leaving the venta, for their destination, the city 
of Burgos. The foe were then to be attacked by the guerillas 



Zhc XTreacberous XanMorft 17 

in ambuscade. Two of the chiefs most trusty and intelligent 
men were, at the time of Captain Dubois' inquiries, concealed 
in an old barn, standing at some distance behind the venta 
and hidden from view among trees. They were to wait for 
the needful information from Jose', and one was at once to 
start away to meet his chief and the band at a certain point 
within easy reach of both routes, while the second guerilla 
was to remain in the barn until the Frenchmen started, in 
case of a change of route from the one made known by 
Jose. He might then, duly prompted by the innkeeper, 
be still in time, through speed of foot and short cuts, to 
enable his chief to alter his plans and make a surprise of the 
party proceeding to Burgos. 

In his explanation to Captain Dubois, the innkeeper stated 
that he had been forced by the chief's threats to undertake the 
part here described, but had had no intention of fulfilling 
his promise, or of doing anything to injure " his excellent 
friends, the French." On the other hand, he dared not, 
exposed as he was at all times to guerilla vengeance, put the 
French on their guard. He had, in this perplexity, resolved 
to do nothing for either side, but to conceal himself during 
the stay of the dragoons at the venta, and let matters take their 
course. Jose omitted, however, to inform the French captain 
that, having learned, from the incautious language of the 
sergeant two days before, the time of the troops' return, he had 
sent the information to the guerilla chief. The chief's two 
trusty spies were then seized, on the landlord's indication, in 
the barn, securely bound, taken to the venta, and examined 
by Captain Dubois. Faithful to the death in their country's 
cause, they met all inquiries and threats, either with terrible 
curses on the invaders of Spain, or with statements obviously 
wide of the truth, and their leading out into the courtyard 
for execution brings us almost to the highly dramatic scene 
with which this narrative opened. The landlord's position in 
that scene is easily explained. The keen-witted French 

2 



1 8 tbero patriots 

captain, asking the landlord how it was that the guerilla chief 
knew of the precise day of return from Valladolid to Burgos, 
was met with a denial of all knowledge on the subject. The 
two guerillas, confronted with the traitor, at once declared 
that he had sent the information. The sergeant proved the 
landlord's knowledge, and received a severe rebuke from 
Dubois for his gross indiscretion. The captain then cried, 
pointing to the wretched landlord, " Seize the fellow, and 
give him a traitor's doom!" "Your promise, senor ! — your 
promise ! " " My promise was not to hang you, but I'll shoot 
you, as you have failed to fulfil the conditions, though it's a 
pity such a man should fall by a soldier's weapon, and yonder 
brave and faithful fellows be forced to die in your company." 

In a few minutes the tragedy would have been acted out, 
when a new-comer suddenly appeared on the scene. He was 
a man little above the middle height, but with limbs and 
frame showing gigantic strength in the broad chest, brawny 
neck, and muscular arms. His features, large and coarse, 
but not uncomely, wore an expression of the utmost daring 
and decision, and their effect was heightened by long coal- 
black hair, thick moustache, and bushy whiskers meeting 
under the chin. A broad-leafed hat shaded his dark visage. 
Clad in the ordinary peasant garb, he gazed vacantly around, 
as if in wonder at the scene before him. The keen observing 
faculty of the French captain here stood him in good stead. 
He noted a slight start of the two kneeling guerillas, and 
was quick enough to catch a faint response of intelligence, 
in mute gesture, on the part of the new-comer. He whispered 
an order to the sergeant, and a moment later half a dozen 
dragoons flung themselves upon the man, and overpowered 
him in spite of amazing efforts of strength, against which 
two ordinary men would have been as children. "Who 
are you?" when the prisoner was securely bound. "I am 
Nicolas Herastas, the woodman, and have come to the venta 
to sell yonder faggots to Senor Jose for firewood. What 



Bia3 in Extreme ipertl 19 

mischief have I done, that you should seize and bind me 
thus ? " The huge bundle of faggots which he bore on his 
shoulder when he entered the yard seemed to confirm his 
words. "Know you this man?" inquired the captain from 
the kneeling guerillas. " We know him not," was the steady 
response. " Know you this man ? " he asked of the landlord. 
"Si, senor, si!" "Who is he?" "Juan Martin Diaz, el 
Empecinado ! " " What, the leader of the band to which 
these men belong?" "The same, senor." The execution 
was for a few minutes stayed, and the new prisoner was 
led into the house. Martin Diaz, in truth, it was. Having 
waited in vain for the return of his two trusty spies, he 
had run the risk of seeking information in person, with the 
result, through the infamous treachery of Jose, which we 
have seen. Rejecting, with a look of supreme scorn and 
contempt which made even the cool and self-possessed 
Dubois quail before him, an offer of life and liberty in return 
for information as to the number of men in his band and 
their present place of gathering, the great guerilla chief was 
doomed to die. 

In this brief space of time, his noble demeanour had made 
for him a friend in the ranks of the foe. The captain's son, 
young Dubois, a generous, high-spirited youth, sixteen years 
of age, was present at the interview between his father and 
Diaz, and he implored the captain to spare him, arguing, as 
his best chance of success, that there was no proof of the 
prisoner's identity with the guerilla chief, seeing that the only 
man who had denounced him as Diaz was a known traitor 
and liar. The father was forced, in his firm belief that the 
man was the redoubtable guerilla chief, to reject his son's 
prayer, and he left the room for the purpose of summoning 
a guard to convey the prisoner to the courtyard. Diaz, in 
a low tone, begged the lad to perform the last request of a 
dying man, in a way that could involve no danger or trouble 
to himself. " How can I serve you ? " The guerilla chief 



20 1bero patriots 

turned round, so as to show his hands covered with blood. 
The cords which bound his wrists behind were cutting him 
to the bone, and inflicting exquisite pain. " Cut these cords," 
he said. "Ina few minutes it will signify little whether I 
am bound or loose; but release me from this torture, and 
earn the last blessing of a dying man." The young French- 
man snatched up a knife from the table, and severed the 
cords nearly through from below, Diaz keeping his hands 
in the same position. He was then led out to share the 
fate of his two men and the landlord, all being placed within 
a few feet of the edge of a steep descent, twelve or fifteen feet 
in depth, on the rearside of the square courtyard. The 
thicket, concealing the barn where the two guerillas had been 
seized, and really forming the edge of a wood some miles 
in length and breadth, reached nearly to the foot of the 
descent. At the word " Fire ! " Diaz, who had closely 
watched the officer's lips, threw himself flat on his face. The 
other three men fell, pierced with bullets, but the three 
intended for the guerilla chief flew harmlessly a yard above 
him. He bounded to his feet, shouted " Venganza ! " sprang 
down the descent, and in a few seconds vanished in the wood. 
Pursuit was vain. The guerilla quickly reached his band, 
but no surprise of the French party could now be attempted, 
and they reached Burgos in safety about midnight. 

Three years passed away from the time of this marvellous 
escape of the Empecinado^ due to the generosity of a young 
Frenchman, and to the chieftain's own coolness, activity, 
and skill. It was the evening of Wellington's great day at 
Salamanca. Captain Dubois had become colonel of his 
regiment of dragoons, and was engaged in covering the French 
retreat. His son was now captain of his father's former troop. 
In a desperate charge made for the purpose of rescuing a 
battery of four guns captured by the British, and now engaged 
in hurling destruction on their former masters, Colonel Dubois 
was killed by a round shot, and the regiment was shattered 



Dia3' (Bratitufce 2t 

by infantry fire and a charge of British horse. Young Dubois, 
wounded by a sabre cut in the side and by a grape-shot 
which had grazed his temple, was carried away at first by 
the crowd of fugitives. When he extricated himself from 
the press and tumult, he sought shelter with his horse in 
what appeared to be a half-ruined shed for cattle, intending, 
if he were unable to continue his retreat, to surrender 
himself to the first party of British soldiers that he could 
discover. After some hours of deep slumber, he was awoke 
by the sound of human voices and of horses' hoofs, and 
found himself, to his despair, in the midst of a band of 
guerillas. 

On the morrow, he was striving to mount his horse at 
their orders, and accompany his captors, when a man rode 
up rapidly and alighted. Dubois had some remembrance 
of the new-comer's powerful build and strongly marked 
features, but could not, in the dazed condition of his mind 
due to his wounds, recall the circumstances of their meeting. 
The guerilla, more smart and military in costume than 
the rest, inquired why they were permitting him to mount, 
and was answered by a tall, fierce fellow that they purposed 
"taking him to hang him on the same tree from which 
the hounds, his countrymen, hung my father at his own 
door last week, for refusing to become their guide." " But 
don't you see he won't live to accomplish half the 
journey ? Besides, there's better game afoot, and I want 
you all just now for more active service than to escort 
a wounded man a dozen leagues." "Stand clear, then," 
cried the first man to his comrades, "and let me exter- 
minate the accursed Francese I " The group gave way, and 
left the man standing face to face with his intended victim, 
at the distance of a few feet. In leading the French- 
man from the house, his shako had been forgotten, and he 
now stood with bare head, waiting for death, the bright 
rays of the early sun full on his features, bringing every 



22 1bero patriots 

line of his countenance into the utmost clearness of view. 
The weapon was pointed at his brow ; the finger was already 
pressing on the trigger, when the new-comer shouted " Hold ! " 
and at the same instant struck up the weapon with his 
hand, and caused the charge to pass several feet above 
the prisoner's head. The Empecinado, for he it was, had in 
the fateful moment of time recognised the benefactor who 
had helped to save him at the inn. The guerilla, baulked 
of his purpose, tried in a rage to stab Dubois with his long 
two-edged knife, but his arm was seized by Diaz, and held 
as in a vice. A brief struggle was ended by a turn of the 
chiefs wrist which dislocated the man's arm at the shoulder, 
and left it helpless at his side. The Empecinado paid his 
debt of gratitude in full measure, and running over, by 
escorting the young French captain to his countrymen's lines, 
after finding and duly burying, with Catholic rites, the body 
of his brave father, the colonel. 

During young Captain Dubois' stay for three weeks in 
charge of the guerilla chieftain, while, under the most kindly 
and careful tendance, he was recovering from the wound 
received on the stricken field of Salamanca, the Empecinado, 
at the Frenchman's request, gave him particulars concerning 
one of his most remarkable escapes. A French officer, known 
to Dubois, had been despatched, about two years previously, 
with a large party of men, to arrest the great guerilla, and had 
been afterwards tried by court-martial, and " broken " for 
misconduct and failure in the enterprise. In the north of 
Old Castile, at a distance of some eight or ten leagues from 
the city of Burgos, was a mountain of peculiar form, rising 
from the plain by a gentle and gradual ascent on all sides save 
the south. In that direction it ended abruptly in a sheer 
precipice 600 feet in depth, smooth and perpendicular as a 
wall. Projecting from the top of the cliff into mid-air, at 
about the central point between the two extremities, was a 
detached portion of rock, about 6 feet in diameter at top, 



2>ia3 again in Danger 23 

connected with the main cliff by an isthmus over 3 feet long 
and 18 inches broad. This little platform, whose top lay 
4 feet below the level of the adjoining cliff, was known to 
the neighbouring peasants as the " Devil's Crag." The sides 
of the mountain were covered with olive-trees and other 
growths, from the plain below to within a short distance of 
the summit, leaving at the top a clear space about two acres 
in extent, bounded on the southern side by the precipice 
above described. On a bright forenoon in the spring of 
18 10, the Efnpecinado was seated on this open area, within 
a few feet of the edge of the cliff, and just opposite the 
Devil's Crag. Telescope in hand, he was intently observing 
a road which wound among the hills and swept the base 
of the mountain on whose summit he was stationed. Every 
object on the road, to the distance of two leagues, was 
visible to him from the spot which he occupied. His spies 
had brought intelligence that a valuable convoy of treasure 
and arms for the French troops would pass on that day, 
and he had arranged an attack for his guerillas, whom he 
had suitably posted in the woods below. The Empecinado 
had then, accompanied by only one of his men, ascended the 
mountain to watch for the approach of the expected prize. 

Treachery had been at work. The faults in the character 
of Diaz as a leader were excess of confidence and lack of 
caution and salutary mistrust. True as steel himself to his 
country's cause, having boundless reliance on his own re- 
sources in case of need, he neglected the prudent precautions 
rendered needful by the circumstances of his hazardous 
career. His arrangements were fully known to his band, 
and one of the number had been bribe'd by the French. 
After months of waiting for a chance of obtaining the high 
price in French gold set on the head of Diaz, the opportunity 
seemed to him to have arrived. He had made known his 
leader's intention to ascend the mountain, and some hours 
before sunrise a company of French soldiers, conducted by 



24 tbeto patriots 

the traitor along secluded paths, had been placed in a thickly 
wooded hollow at the foot of the mountain, in an opposite 
quarter to that by which Diaz was expected to come. When 
the wretch, from a place of hiding, had seen the Empecinado 
pass up the mountain, he reported the fact to the French 
officer with the troops, and the men were instantly sel n 
motion, with orders to take the guerilla chief alive, if it were 
possible, in order to make him a public and terrible example, 
and thus overawe the peasantry of the province. His com- 
panion might be at once slain ; the Empecinadds dress and 
general appearance being carefully described for the avoidance 
of mistake. 

An arc of a circle was formed by the ascending troops, 
contracting as they advanced, and as Diaz intently gazed 
on the road by which he expected the convoy, a loud 
cry from his companion caused him to turn his head and 
behold a sight which might well try even his iron nerves. 
Within fifty yards of him were double that number of French 
sharpshooters, forming an unbroken line between him and 
the wooded part of the mountain, steadily advancing, and 
surrounding him on all sides save the one bounded by the 
precipice. The companion of Diaz, a brave fellow enough, 
of ordinary intellectual and moral stamp, made a desperate 
attempt to reach by a rush the cover of the foliage near at 
hand. Before he had run a score yards towards the wood, 
he fell dead with half a dozen rifle bullets in his head and 
body. For a moment or two the Empecinado, as he freely 
confessed to Dubois, fully believed that his hour was come. 
He was, as has been seen, an extraordinary man. The hour 
had come, but only for a display of his wonderful fertility 
of resource and prompt resolve. Steady as the hill on which 
he stood, he maintained his position near the precipice, 
while the Frenchmen closed around him on every side save 
one, and halted at last within twenty feet of the spot 
where their victim was at gaze, motionless, fearless, his 



Bta3' Marvellous Escape 25 

visage expressing naught but stern determination not to die 
unavenged. 

The French officer, feeling sure of his man, and exulting 
in the capture of the famed guerilla chief, rushed forward 
and placed his grasp on the collar of the Empecinado. The 
guerilla, shaking him off with a mere show of effort, flung 
his right arm round the waist of the officer, a man of short, 
slight figure, and lifted him off the ground with the utmost 
ease. He then turned round, and cleared at a leap, as the 
French soldiers uttered a cry of terror, the space between 
the edge of the precipice and the Devil's Crag. The next 
moment, standing erect on the narrow surface of the platform, 
he cried " Halt ! " in a tone like that of a trumpet. The 
command was needless. The soldiers, fully believing that 
their officer and the guerilla had gone down the precipice 
together, had stopped as if they had been turned to stone. 
The Empecinado then cried, "Advance but a step; point 
but a rifle, and down I go, and carry your officer with me ! " 
Turning to the Frenchman, he inquired, "You know who I 
am?" "Martin Diaz, called the Empeci?iado" was the reply 
in a faint voice. " And you have come hither to arrest me ? " 
"Yes." "Then I need scarcely inform you that 1 do not 
intend either to be taken alive or to die alone. Now look 
below you." A glance was enough, and the hapless officer 
clung closely to the terrible man in whose hands he knew his 
fate to be. "I perceive you don't admire the prospect," Diaz 
coolly went on. " Now mark my words. I leave this hill by 
the way I came, unharmed and free, or I leave it by the 
shorter route, and take you in my company. But do as I bid 
you and you shall suffer no hurt. First, order your men to 
face towards the wood and discharge their rifles." "What 
security have I that you will keep your promise if I do as 
you direct?" "For security," said Diaz, "you have only the 
word of a man who never broke his pledge to friend or foe ! 
Do as I direct you," he cried, as the Frenchman hesitated, 



26 Ibero patriots 

" or we at once take the leap together ! " The word was 
given. 

The men, perfect in discipline, and now in mortal dread 
for their captain, at once faced round, and in another second 
every rifle in the company was empty. "Now order them 
to pile their arms and retire a hundred paces to the right," 
said Diaz. Again he was obeyed. " One word more," 
said the Empecinado. " Have I been betrayed by any 
Spaniard ? " " Yes, by a member of your own band." " His 
name ! " " Pedro Velascas," was the reply. " He awaits me 
at the fountain where the three roads meet, near the foot of 
the hill, expecting the offered reward." " He has earned his 
reward, and he shall have it ! " cried the guerilla chief. 
Bounding lightly from the platform of the Devil's Crag to the 
top of the cliff, he called on the Frenchman to follow ; but the 
officer, whose nerve had been severely shaken, found it need- 
ful, helped by his grasp of Diaz' stout belt, to scramble down 
on the little isthmus, and thence to the top of the precipice. 
When he stood in safety on firm ground, the Empecinado, 
with a laughing farewell, started for the wood in a direction 
opposite to that where the soldiers were drawn up. They 
rushed for their weapons, but before they had covered the 
hundred paces the light-footed guerilla had traversed a hun- 
dred and fifty, and long before the quickest man in the 
company could load, the guerilla was lost to view in the woods. 
A brief pursuit took place, but the men were soon recalled by 
the officer, who had had quite enough of the Empecinado for 
one day. Diaz, running headlong to the foot of the hill, made 
his way to the fountain, and found his betrayer, Velascas, 
stretched beneath a tree. He started to his feet, and was 
palsied with terror at the sight of his chief. The work of 
punishment was terrible and brief. The French soldiers, pass- 
ing the spot an hour later, found their guide of the morning a 
corpse with the blackened and distorted features due to death 
by strangulation. 



S>ia3' Xater Career 27 

The story of the Empecinadds career as a guerilla fighting 
for Spain against foreign foes has been told. We are now 
to view him for a short space in the still nobler part of a 
champion of constitutional freedom against a tyrant king of 
Spain. Ferdinand VII. was one of the worst of a bad race, 
the Bourbons, who, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, 
held the thrones of Naples and of Spain. Ferdinand I., king 
of " the two Sicilies," third son of Charles III. of Spain, 
had been driven from Naples in 1806, by the conquering 
arms of Napoleon. Restored by the Congress of Vienna 
in 1&15, he had sworn, before his recall, to grant consti- 
tutional rule, and a popular movement in 1820 compelled 
him to renew his pledge. In the following year, with the 
help of an Austrian army, he broke his word and set 
up a rigorous despotism, maintained until his death in 
1825. Ferdinand II. of "the two Sicilies," grandson of 
this perjured monarch, soon showed himself as corrupt and 
worthless a king. The tool of Austrian policy, ever hostile 
to liberal measures, he made his Neapolitan realm the scene 
of incessant conspiracy, insurrection, bloodshed, and cruel 
political prosecutions. In the storm of revolution which swept 
over Europe in 1848, this Ferdinand granted a "constitution" 
to both Naples and Sicily, but the Sicilians justly mistrusted 
his pledges, and their revolt was subdued by the inhuman 
bombardment of their chief cities which earned for their 
sovereign the epithet of "Bomba," a brand of dishonour 
destined to live in history's page. The new constitution 
was swept away, and Ferdinand's cruel persecution of the 
reforming party was exposed to the execration of the world 
in Mr. Gladstone's famous letters from Naples, written in 1851. 

The name which has thus become infamous in the royal 
records of modern Europe was right worthily borne by 
Ferdinand VII. of Spain. During the Peninsular War, the 
patriotic party made great efforts to reform the govern- 
ment, and to confer political freedom on the people. The 



28 ifcero patriots 

task was a difficult one. The absolutist party was still 
strong, and the "liberals" were divided among themselves. 
The "Constitution of Cadiz" of 1812, the real beginning 
of modern Spain, was set aside by the king on his return 
to power in March, 18 14, though he had sworn to maintain 
it. The Inquisition was re-established, and all restrictions 
on despotic rule were removed. An insurrection headed by 
the patriots Riego and Quiroga compelled the tyrant to 
accept the constitution from 1820 to 1823, but the mistakes 
of the liberal party and the aid of one hundred thousand 
French troops enabled him to regain his absolute power, 
and to maintain it until his death in 1833. 

The EmpecinadO) in 1823, had a command, on the side 
of the Cortes, or Parliament, in the corps of General Placencia. 
When this body of troops, after the revolution of Cadiz had 
restored power to the party of absolute rule, was forced to 
capitulate, Diaz, the terror of the tyrannical faction, was 
arrested. He was a marked man in the eyes of his sovereign. 
In 181 5 he had given great offence by the presentation of 
a memorial for the establishment of the constitutional rule 
promised in 181 2, when Ferdinand's throne was only in 
prospect, not yet, through British and Spanish valour, in 
possession. He was then punished by confinement to 
Valladolid as his place of abode. In 1820, when a rising 
took place, as above mentioned, in favour of parliamentary 
government, the Cortes placed him in charge of a body of 
troops with which he dispersed the bands of the "curate" 
Merino, formerly the guerilla chief whose cruelty has been 
recorded. He was now in arms for the support of absolutism 
in Spain. 

The arrest of the Empecinado was effected by the corregidor, 
or chief town-magistrate, of Roa, a functionary of royal 
appointment. The brave warrior, who had doubly fought 
for Spain, first for her deliverance from the French invaders, 
and then for the political freedom of her people, was flung 



Execution of Bfa3 29 

into a dungeon, and treated with outrageous insult and 
violence. He was at last tried and condemned to death 
as a traitor, becoming one of the numerous victims whose 
judicial murder, at that time, made unhappy Spain a land 
of mourning, misery, and shame. His aged mother addressed 
to King Ferdinand a letter full of dignity and pathos, recalling 
the services formerly rendered to Spain by her gallant son 
in the struggle against France. The miserable monarch 
refused to change the sentence of death for one of perpetual 
exile, and Martin Diaz ascended the scaffold, to be hanged, 
amid the insulting yells of a fanatical mob excited and 
encouraged by the monks and priests whose influence, nearly 
always employed in favour of absolute rule, has been for 
ages a curse to Spain in political and social affairs. At this 
last moment, the hero who had fought brilliantly, strenuously, 
and often with success, against the French, and had then 
covered himself with new honour in a vain contest against 
tyranny, could not refrain from resistance to inevitable doom. 
He struggled with his executioners, and received a mortal 
stab from one of the soldiers. Thus he passed away, with 
no small share of glory for himself, and of disgrace to his 
murderers, into the pages of history. The subsequent career 
of Spain — her recurring dynastic civil wars and revolutionary 
struggles, her utter failure to attain an European position 
worthy of her natural resources and of her past history, her 
loss of colonial empire and her present humiliation — these 
form at once the vindication of him who strove to place his 
country firmly on the road to reform, and the retribution 
brought by the shedders of innocent blood on their children's 
children. 



CHAPTER II 
THE TYROLESE WAR 1809 

ANDREAS HOFER ; TEIMER ; SPECHBACHER j HASPINGER 

Tyrol and the Tyrolese — Early History — Country becomes Subject to 
Austria — Attachment of People to House of Hapsburg — Resistance 
against Bavaria in 1703 — Against the French in 1797 — The Brave 
Peasant-Woman — The Tyrolese and Marshal Ney in 1805 — Country 
handed over to Bavarian Rule (1806) — Bavarian Tyranny — 
Popular Feeling aroused — Andreas Hofer, the " Sandwirth," his 
Early Career — His Character as a Man and a Leader — Hofer and 
the Austrian Government — The Archduke John — A Rising planned — 
War between France and Austria — Personal Appearance and 
Costume of Hofer — The Time for Action arrives — Description of 
Teimer, Spechbacher, and Haspinger — The Rising of April, 1809 — 
The First Action of the War — The Peasants, Bavarians, and French 
at the Gorge of Brixen — Hofer and his Men victorious at Sterzing 
Moos — The Brave Tyrolese Girl — Spechbacher and his Followers 
in the Inn Valley — His Capture of Hall — Tyrolese Women escort 
Bavarian Prisoners — Teimer arrives in aid — The Patriots capture 
Innsbruck — French and Bavarians capitulate — Other Tyrolese 
Successes — Hofer clears the Southern Country — Napoleon's Wrath 
— A New Invasion of Tyrol by Marshal Lefebvre — Fierce Battle at 
the Strub Pass — Bavarians' Heavy Loss — Austrian General Chastelar 
defeated — Enemy advance on Innsbruck — Cruelty of French Troops 
— Marshal Lefebvre enters Innsbruck — Hofer driven back to Passeyr 
Valley — He raises Fresh Forces — Spechbacher's Grand Success — 
Occupies Innsbruck — Joins Hofer — The Tyrolese Victory at Berg 
Isel — Arrival of Teimer — Father Haspinger in Action — Another 
Brave Tyrolese Girl — Fierce Fighting — Hofer's Splendid Charge — 
Enemy retreat in Night — Innsbruck again won by Patriots — Further 
Successes of Tyrolese — Effect on Tyrolese Cause of Archduke 
Charles' Defeat at Wagram — The People abandoned by Austria — 
Tyrolese resolve to act alone — The "Sandwirth" chosen as 

30 



Commander-in-Chief — Napoleon's Resolve to crush Resistance — 
Marshal Lefebvre with Great Force enters Innsbruck — Hofer's 
Memorable Reply to Demand for Surrender — His March from the 
Passeyr Valley — Spechbacher and Haspinger again in the Field — 
Desperate Resistance to Lefebvre's Advance on Brixen — The 
Tyrolese "Stone-Batteries" — The French Marshal driven back 
near Sterzing — Hofer and Spechbacher defeat him at Sterzing Moos 
— Lefebvre retires to Innsbruck — The Great Battle of Berg Isel — 
Hofer, Haspinger, and Spechbacher in Command — Tyrolese at first 
repulsed — The Patriots rally — Lefebvre finally beaten with Loss 
of Guns — He abandons Innsbruck — Tyrolese, for the Third Time, 
have their Capital — Hofer's Triumphal Entry — Calms the Excited 
Patriots — Assumes Office as Governor of Tyrol — His Simple 
Manners — His Excellent Rule — Austrian Emperor confirms Hofer's 
Position — Tyrolese Dismay on News of Treaty of Schonbrunn — 
Tyrol abandoned to Napoleon — New Invasion by French and 
Bavarians in Immense Force — Spechbacher defeated at Strub Pass 
— Hofer, about to submit, roused by Haspinger — The Struggle 
revived — Bavarian Cruelties — Tyrolese defeated at Berg Isel — 
Hofer bids Peasants lay down Arms — Retires to Passeyr Valley — 
The " Sandwirth " again in Field — His and Haspinger's Successes — 
The Patriots overcome by Superior Forces — Hofer in Concealment 
near his Home — Atrocious Cruelty of Bavarians — Haspinger escapes 
to Vienna — Spechbacher's Romantic Adventures — His Marvellous 
Escapes — Hofer's Life in Hiding — His Refusal to escape to Vienna — 
Price set on his Head — A Tyrolese Traitor — Hofer seized at Last — 
Cruel Treatment of the Hero — His Passage down Passeyr Valley 
— Generous Behaviour of French Commander, Baraguay d'Hilliers 
— Hofer conveyed to Mantua — Tried by Court Martial at Napoleon's 
Order — The " Corsican's " Cruelty and Duplicity — French General 
Bisson tries to save Hofer — The Patriot refuses Conditions — His 
Death by shooting at Mantua — Relics of the Hero at Innsbruck — Final 
Interment at Capital of Tyrol — The Monument in the Great Church 
— Spechbacher and Haspinger lie beside him. 

TYROL (in German, Tirol), usually called "the Tyrol" 
in England, a region which is now a notable "play- 
ground" of British and other foreign tourists in the summer 
season, is a " Crown-land " province of the Austrian Empire. 
The territory, with an area of 10,300 square miles, nearly 
two-thirds that of Switzerland, by which it is bounded on 
the west, has Bavaria to the north, Carinthia to the east, 



32 1bero patriots 

Venetia and Lombardy to the south. In the great Alpine 
system, Tyrol is really a continuation of Switzerland, being 
entered thence by the three chains which traverse it from 
west to east. The central range, the Tyrol or Oetzthaler 
Alps, attaining 11,000 to 12,500 feet in height, is the most 
lofty, dividing the country into North and South Tyrol, and 
being crossed by the road over the romantic Brenner Pass, 
at 4,600 feet above sea-level, on the main highway from 
Germany to Italy. To the north of this central range lies 
the valley of the Inn, with the capital, Innsbruck. The 
southern chain is separated from the central range by 
the valley of the Etsch or Adige, and by that called the 
Pustherthal, and is itself divided into eastern and western 
portions by the river Adige forcing its way through. There 
are countless minor valleys, all, like the larger ones, capable 
of cultivation. 

This region, inferior in magnificence of scenery to Switzer- 
land alone of European countries, is one of snow-fields, 
glaciers, avalanches, and cascades among the mountains, and 
also contains many small lakes. Of the whole territory nearly 
one-third is accessible only to chamois, goats, and adventurous 
mountaineers; nearly one-half is covered by forests, and the 
remainder is natural pasture, feeding mainly sheep and goats, 
with some arable land producing grain ; vineyards and gardens, 
and orchards richly yielding the finest fruits of temperate 
climes. 

The Tyrolese, numbering early in the nineteenth century 
somewhat over half a million, are in race about three-fifths 
German and two-fifths Italian. They are a simple and manly 
people, marked by devotion to the Catholic faith, loyalty to 
their rulers, and love of the fatherland ; not generally well 
educated, and somewhat superstitious. The territory, in the 
great Roman Empire of olden days, formed part of the 
province of Rhsetia, conquered under Augustus Caesar. After 
the collapse of the western empire, it was occupied by people 



Earls HMstors of ZTprol 33 

of the Langobardi and other German tribes. In the Middle 
Ages, the chief authorities were the bishops of Trent (Trient) 
and Brixen, towns respectively in the south and centre, and 
the Counts of Tyrol. In 1369 the land came under the 
sway of the Duke of Austria, being bequeathed to the House 
of Hapsburg by Margareta, the ruler, last of her line. Since 
that time the Tyrol has, save for the brief period we are 
about to deal with, from 1806 to 18 14, formed part of the 
dominions of the House of Austria. 

The Tyrolese, as if actuated by the old rivalry between 
the Austrian and Bavarian houses, have ever resisted all 
attempts to incorporate them with Bavaria, though the people 
are, in customs and in religion, in speech and in race, to 
a large extent identical with those of the country on their 
northern frontier. During the War of the Spanish Succession, 
Max Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, then allied with France 
against Austria, wished to effect a passage through Tyrol, 
in 1703, in order to make a junction of his forces with those 
of the French general, the Due de Vendome, marching 
northwards out of Italy. The Elector and his army reached 
Innsbruck in safety, moved onwards to the Brenner, and 
then sent out a detachment, round by the Inn valley, to 
look out for the expected French army. In a gorge above 
Landeck, where the bridge of Pontlatz crosses the Inn, 
there a rough torrent over forty yards wide, the bridge was 
found to be broken, and the further side of the river defended 
by a rampart breast-high. Not a man could be seen by 
the Bavarians, but in a few moments musketry began to 
crackle from the sides of the mountains, and tree-trunks 
and rocks rolled down upon men and horses. There was 
no retreat possible, and in a very short time the whole force 
was crushed, shot, drowned, or made prisoners. In a few 
days the whole country was up in arms, and the Elector 
had to cut his way back to Bavaria with a heavy loss of 
officers and men. This lesson was not lost upon the foes 

3 



34 Ibero patriots 

of Austria, and Tyrol remained free from invasion for nearly 
a century. 

In March 1797 Joubert, a French general, marching 
from Italy, strove to cross the Brenner. He was met by 
an army of peasants at the point where the Brenner road is 
joined by the main eastern route through the Pustherthal. 
Desperate fighting went on for some days in the forests, 
the furious valour of the Tyrolese being almost beyond 
belief. One man was found dead with seven Frenchmen 
lying round. Another, after shooting six of the foes, was 
attacked by five at close quarters, and disposed of three 
before he was slashed with swords and left for dead. He 
lived, however, to tell the tale. It was in this struggle that 
a young woman of twenty-two years, Katharina Lanz, who 
survived until 1854, headed the defenders of the little church 
and churchyard in the hamlet of Spinges. With skirts tucked 
up, and hair floating in the breeze, this patriotic Tyrolese 
used a pitchfork in a style that was too efficient for the French 
bayonets. In the end, Joubert, whose way back to Italy 
was occupied by an Austrian force, had to make his escape 
down the Pustherthal. These instances suffice to show the 
spirit with which invaders were likely to be received in Tyrol. 
During the hostilities between France and Austria in 1805 
Marshal Ney made his way to Innsbruck, the stubborn 
resistance of the Tyrolese having been foiled through the 
skilful turning of their positions. That renowned French 
commander, during his brief stay in the country, showed his 
respect for the warlike people by the moderation of his 
conduct. 

The Peace of Presburg, concluded by Napoleon with the 
Emperor of Austria on December 26, 1805, after the 
glorious day of Austerlitz, was the immediate cause of further 
trouble to the Tyrolese. That instrument of diplomacy 
handed them over to Bavarian rule, after more than four 
centuries of loving allegiance to the House of Hapsburg. 



bavarian Uranus in Uvvol 35 

National feelings were brutally disregarded in this annexa- 
tion, and the faithless and cruel conduct of the Bavarian 
government inflamed the wound. The eighth clause of the 
Treaty of Presburg laid down that those countries (the ceded 
Tyrol and Vorarlberg) should " be enjoyed by the King 
of Bavaria in the same manner, and with the same rights 
and prerogatives as the Emperor of Germany and Austria 
and the princes of his House enjoyed them, and no otherwise" 
These last two words were intended to preserve for the 
Tyrolese their ancient constitution, and all the rights and 
privileges which made the prosperous and intensely religious 
people practically free and self-governed, without any pressure 
of external authority. The King of Bavaria, Maximilian 
Joseph, on his courteous reception of some Tyrolese deputies 
at Munich, declared that " not one iota of their Constitution 
should be effaced." This solemn promise, apart from the 
treaty-obligation, was observed as follows : The constitution 
was abrogated. The public money was seized. New and 
heavy taxes were levied. The conscription, or compulsory 
service in the army, was introduced in place of volunteering 
for the national militia. The local authorities, to which 
the people had been accustomed for centuries, were super- 
seded by a host of insolent officials from Munich. The 
Tyrolese were styled " Bavarians," and the country was 
re-parcelled into " circles " or territorial departments, with 
novel names. The use of their own language was forbidden 
to the Italian-speaking population of South Tyrol. To these 
injuries was added the bitterest insult in the sale, by public 
auction, of the ancient " Castle of Tyrol," near the lovely 
town of Meran, in the heart of the country. At that spot 
the Passeyr valley issues from the great mountain walls and 
opens into the valley of the Etsch or Adige, with high 
mountains, here and there snow-capped, rising on every 
side, and the slopes around covered with vineyards. The 
castle, once the abode of Margareta Maultasch, the Countess 



36 Ifoero patriots 

of Tyrol above mentioned, and of the Counts of her line, 
was the place from which the country derived its name. 

But there was worse than all this in store for the Tyrolese. 
They were stabbed in their most tender point, the religion 
closely interwoven with their daily and their national 
existence. Visible proofs of this are the decorations of the 
houses, in the carvings of the balcony and roof; and the 
little wayside chapels and crosses, where the peasant may 
be seen at prayer on his way to his daily toil. The Tyrolese 
is most deeply attached to his priest, as the friend, the 
adviser, the arbiter in disputes, for all his flock. A system 
of religious persecution began under the auspices of the 
Bavarian king's chief adviser, a bigoted member of the new 
sect of Illuminate or " Enlightened Ones," rejecting Catholic 
dogmas. The churches were plundered, and the sacred 
vessels were put to profane uses, being sold to Jews who 
flocked into the country to " do a trade " in silver plate. 
The Church-festivals were suppressed, the convents and 
monasteries were seized. The centre of this odious persecution 
was Meran, in which district the bishop and many priests 
who refused obedience to the orders of the Bavarian 
government were imprisoned. The peasants worshipped, in 
fact, only among the mountains and forests, at the secret 
summons of faithful patriotic priests, as none would attend 
the Church services of those who had submitted to the new 
tyrannical rule. 

For some time, the country groaned in despair under this 
yoke ; but a stern, strong purpose was slowly growing in the 
hearts of the people. One day a mountaineer came down to 
Innsbruck, and stopped to gaze at the Bavarian colours, blue 
and white, where the Austrian black and yellow flag used to 
float. A passing Bavarian official asked him " whether he did 
not think the new colours prettier than the old ones ? " " Oh, 
certainly," cried the peasant, " they are fine, but they will not 
last; in time the blue will turn yellow, and the white black." 




"ofoas "° 



[Face page 37. 



Ifoofer, tbe " Sanfcwirtb " 37 

In no Tyrolese breast did this feeling of patriotic hope 
stir more strongly than in that of the chief subject of this 
chapter in our record, Andreas Hofer. This famous hero 
was born at St. Leonhard, in the valley of Passeyr, in the 
autumn of 1767. He lost his parents in early life, and was 
reared by friends who gave him a fairly good education. 
From his father he inherited an inn known as the Sandhof, 
or " House on the Sand," from its position, as it still exists, 
by the wild torrent of the Passeyr, where the bed widens into 
a little beach. As owner and keeper of this rustic tavern, 
Hofer was generally known among his countrymen as "the 
Sandwirth," or " landlord of Sand." The place is very central, 
at about four hours' march from Meran to the south and seven 
hours' rugged walk from Sterzing, half-way up the south side 
of the Brenner. Hofer had already fought against foes of 
Tyrol. In 1796, when war broke out between France and 
Austria, he led a company of riflemen against the French 
to Lake Garda, and after the Peace of Luneville, signed in 
February 1801, he was very zealous, with an eye to future 
contests, in organising a Tyrolese militia. Again, in 1805, 
he fought at the head of a few brave comrades against 
Marshal Ney. His position in his native country, prior to 
1809, was already one of high distinction. To his calling 
as an innkeeper he added that of a dealer in horses and 
wine, and was well known in every quarter from his frequent 
passage to and fro. In business he was highly esteemed for 
his truthfulness and just dealing. His simple, manly piety, 
outwardly evinced in purity of life, and his fervid patriotism, 
were the real bases of the devoted admiration which he won 
and retained among the Tyrolese. The " Sandwirth " became 
the chief national hero, not from any special capacity in 
military tactics or civil affairs, not from any conspicuous " dash " 
or recklessness on the field of battle, not from any gift of 
eloquence, but through the complete trust which all men 
felt in his integrity and in his absolute devotion to the 



38 1bero patriots 

cause of Tyrolese freedom. His one fault, as a leader of 
men, leant stongly to the side of virtue. He was so kindly 
in disposition, so extremely good-natured, so honest himself, 
that he was unable to distrust others, and these qualities, 
estimable in themselves, betrayed him by their excess into 
occasional lack of resolution and of adherence to plans deliber- 
ately formed. His great value as a leader lay in the personal 
magnetism which could at once raise ten thousand men by 
sending round the word, " Friends, come and help me ! " 
Devoid, as we have hinted, of the splendid fighting qualities 
of his excellent colleagues Spechbacher and Haspinger, he was 
great in organising victory with scanty means, in circumstances 
that seemed desperate to ordinary men. 

The fame of Hofer had reached Vienna, and when the 
Austrian government was meditating the renewal of conflict 
with Napoleon, it was to him that application was first made 
with a view to a rising in Tyrol. The depth and ardour of 
Tyrolese loyalty were well known to the House of Hapsburg. 
The emperor Maximilian I., who ruled in the days of our 
early Tudors, used to say, " The Tyrol is like a peasant's 
frock, coarse indeed, but right warm." The Archduke John, 
the most beloved member of the Imperial house in Hofer's 
day, reminded the people, in one of his proclamations, that 
the same emperor had styled their country "the shield of 
Austria," and that Charles V. had, with yet higher eulogy, 
declared Tyrol to be " Austria's heart." Hofer was well known 
to this archduke, the emperor's brother, who had been 
governor of Tyrol, and a wanderer through the land in search 
of game and in scientific work. The high-born man highly 
esteemed the character of " the Sandwirth," who, when the 
archduke quitted the country, after the Treaty of Presburg, 
early in 1806, was chosen to represent the valley of Passeyr 
at a parting interview. 

It was towards Hofer that the minds and hearts of his 
countrymen naturally turned for counsel and hope in the 



preparations for IRevolt 39 

dark days which had fallen on the land. For some time 
his only word was " patience," but all through the year 
1808 he was pondering ways and means, and planning 
for the advent of better things. An active secret corres- 
pondence had been long kept up by him with the govern- 
ment at Vienna, and he was, in the end, charged with the 
organising of insurrection against the Bavarian authorities. 
Especially during the winter of 1808- 1809 letters were passing 
to and fro between the Archduke John and the Tyrolese 
leaders, couched in terms not to be readily understood in 
case the documents were intercepted by Bavarian officials. 
Tyrol, in the letters, appeared as a betrothed bride, separated 
from her bridegroom (Austria), who at last writes begging 
the father of the bride to come to the wedding, bringing his 
friends from the Etschthal, or valley of the Adige, and from 
the Innthal, and especially with "Barbone," as Hofer was 
styled by the Italian-speaking peasants of southern Tyrol, 
from his long black beard (barfra), at that time uncommon 
among his people. In January, 1809, in accordance with 
this invitation, the Sandwirth and two other leading men 
went to Vienna for an interview with the archduke. A rising 
in Tyrol was arranged, and the three leaders, on their return, 
traversed the country in every direction, gaining over the 
chief men in each town and district. In these preliminary 
arrangements, Hofer's work included Salzburg and its neigh- 
bourhood, and the Brixen, Ziller, and Inn valleys. His 
trade as a horse-dealer enabled him to go about without 
arousing suspicion, and when all was settled, he returned to 
the Sandhof and awaited the hour of action. 

War between France and Austria came in the spring of 
1809, and a proclamation from the archduke promptly 
summoned the Tyrol to arms. On April 9 a like document, 
issued by Hofer and other leaders, announced that the time 
had at last arrived. The Sandwirth was then forty-two years 
of age. Of middle height, he was thick-set, strongly built, 



4o Ifcero patriots 

and very muscular. Dark, vivacious eyes shone out of a 
round, ruddy face, with a kindly, sympathetic, cheerful, and 
resolute expression, the visage of a man of noble and chival- 
rous nature. His gait was measured, his voice soft and clear. 
His attire was that of a farmer of the better class, the 
picturesque dress of his native valley of Passeyr. Under an 
open jacket of dark material was a scarlet vest crossed by 
broad braces of emerald green. At the waist came a broad 
black leathern belt, with the owner's initials embroidered 
thereon in small threads of goose-quill. Black chamois-leather 
breeches, stockings of blue wool, and heavy high boots com- 
pleted the lower costume. His head bore a black goat's-hair 
steeple cap with broad brim, surrounded by scarlet silken 
string. A little bronze crucifix was worn round the neck, 
mostly hidden by the bushy black beard lying over the chest. 
Such was the man as he stood, on the appointed day, near 
his little inn, among some thousands of followers from the 
valley of Passeyr and other parts of the country around Meran. 
Each peasant-warrior carried a heavy rifle with which he could 
bring down a chamois at three hundred yards. In estimating 
the results of the struggle between these peasants, of whom 
only part had training as a militia, and the forces of France 
and Bavaria, we must remember that the regular troops of 
that age were mostly armed with smooth-bore muskets, not 
effective at a range exceeding eighty yards. 

We must now give some brief account of the other leaders 
all of whom had previously fought for Tyrol. Martin Teimer, 
the youngest, the best educated, and probably the ablest in 
military tactics, was thirty years of age. He had risen to the 
rank of major in the land-sturm or militia, having gained 
distinction in several actions of the year 1799. At the time 
of the insurrection he was keeping a tobacconist's shop at 
Klagenfurt, the capital of Carinthia, east of Tyrol. 

Joseph Spechbacher, forty years old, had in early life been 
a wild character. His father had a farm in the valley of the 



Specbbacber Described 41 

lower Inn. This land was to come to him by inheritance, but 
the lad was of a roving nature, and at the age of twelve he 
adopted a poacher's life. The hunting of the chamois is, at 
best, a risky amusement. In a poacher's case, it has the 
additional excitement of liability to fall by a bullet from a 
gamekeeper's gun. Spechbacher took to the life as a duckling 
to water, and it is obvious that a youth could have no better 
training for irregular warfare. He quickly gained a reputation 
for feats of strength and daring in conflict with beasts and 
birds of prey. His mode of life had well qualified him for 
a patriot's work in the field of war by giving him a good 
knowledge of all the recesses of the mountains in the Inn 
and the Oetz valleys, and the secret by-paths and caverns for 
hiding in his own country and on the Austrian frontier became 
serviceable to him in time of need. Spechbacher's life as a 
poacher came to an end from the remorse aroused in him 
by the tragical issue of an affray with some Bavarian game- 
keepers, in which a Tyrolese was shot dead. He turned to 
a more reputable career, married an excellent woman, settled 
near Hall, east of Innsbruck, and earned a comfortable 
living by supplying wood as fuel for some large salt-works. 
He was thus engaged at the time of the insurrection of 1809. 
He had an inherited grudge against the Bavarian oppressors 
of Tyrol, as a man whose grandsire had served against them 
in former wars of the Empire. The spirit of the ex-poacher 
had passed into his son Anderl, a dark-eyed lad of twelve, 
who was allowed, at his own earnest entreaty, to follow his 
father to the war, and hang about on the outer edge of battle 
picking up stray bullets for further use in Tyrolese muskets 
and rifles. According to the portraits often to be seen in 
Tyrol, Spechbacher was a dark-hued, handsome man, with a 
keen, eagle-like face, and piercing black eyes. His undaunted 
valour and boundless resource made him a most formidable 
foe. He was Hofer's right-hand man as friend and adviser 
throughout the struggle. 



42 Ifoero patriots 

Joachim Haspinger, a priest and Capuchin friar, lived in a 
monastery perched high up on some rocks between Brixen 
and Botzen. He had served as an army chaplain and won 
a silver medal for his courage on the field, and had now no 
scruple whatever in taking a fighter's part in a contest which 
he regarded as a crusade. He was the leader in many a 
fierce attack, but wielded no weapon except a great crucifix 
of ebony, with which he dealt fearful blows, like a mediaeval 
bishop with his weighty mace, in case of need for personal 
defence at close quarters. He became a special favourite 
among the peasants whom he hounded on in the thick of 
battle, and was known among them as " Rothbart " or " Red- 
beard." 

When the order for action was issued by Hofer and the 
other leaders, Teimer took the command in the Inn valley 
above Innsbruck, while Spechbacher had charge of the 
district between the capital and the Bavarian frontier. The 
rising took place on April n, 1809, the signal being carried 
through all the country by women and children, who took, to 
the doors of lonely huts and to hamlets scattered in the vales 
and on snowy heights, slips of wood bearing the words " 'S'ist 
Zeit " (It is time). The people in the river valleys were 
aroused by sawdust sprinkled on the blue-green water of 
melted snow, and by floating planks bearing tiny red flags 
stuck thereon. Fires were set ablaze on the mountain-tops. 
Every village was in commotion as the men poured forth 
from the houses, armed with rifles, swords, or rude imple- 
ments of husbandry, and flocked to the churches for prayer 
and for the blessing of the priest on the great undertaking. 
Then came the parting with mothers, sisters, sweethearts, 
and wives, all as eager as the men for the freedom of Tyrol. 
The peasants of the Passeyr valley were led, as we have 
seen, by Hofer, and after confession and communion at the 
church, they gathered by the river near his inn, and swore 
fidelity to the Kaiser on the Sandwirth's white silk banner. 



Ube Uyvolcsc in Hrms 43 

At his word, " Up, brothers ! with God's help we will cross 
the Jaufen," all streamed away to the north-east along the 
half-frozen mountain paths. Austrian support was at hand. 
The famous Archduke Charles, the emperor's brother, had 
entered Tyrol across the Inn. The Archduke John was to 
the east, at Klagenfurt, and General Chastelar had come into 
the country from the south. 

The first shot in the war was fired in the south-east, near 
Brixen. Colonel von Wrede, commanding the garrison at that 
town, heard of Chastelar's approach through the Pustherthal, 
and on April 10 he sent a detachment to destroy the bridge 
over the river at Saint Lorenzen. The peasants, all ready 
for action, though the signal for general insurrection had 
not yet reached them, instantly gathered and prevented 
the detachment from approaching the bridge. When the 
main body under Wrede came up in support, the troops 
were received by a hot fire from the mountain-side. When 
guns were brought up to destroy the bridge, the Tyrolese, 
many armed only with clubs and flails, made a furious charge, 
surrounded the cannon, and drove the gunners into the 
stream. Wrede could then only strive to force his way to 
Sterzing, to the north-west, in order to unite with the garri- 
son there. A force of three thousand French, under General 
Bisson, marching from Italy, had joined Wrede, and the 
peasants caught the whole body in a narrow defile called 
the Gorge of Brixen. Assailed with rocks and tree-stems 
rolled down the mountain-side, and with bullets from well- 
hidden foes, and with Chastelar's advance-guard pressing on 
the rear, the Bavarians and French suffered heavy loss before 
they reached the plain in which lies Sterzing. 

This little town, a notable one in this period of Tyrolese 
history, was the destination of Hofer and his men when 
they started for the Jaufen Pass. The Bavarian commander 
of the garrison, aware of their approach, wisely resolved to 
meet them on the open ground favourable for the action of 



44 Ifoero patriots 

his disciplined troops. The battle of Sterzing Moos (or Moss) 
took place on April n. The first rush of the peasants was 
promptly checked by a steady fire of musketry and grape-shot. 
The Tyrolese, reforming in a hollow road, where they had 
refreshments brought by their countrymen from Sterzing, 
made a second attack, which was also repulsed. Hofer, 
seated on a hill above, watching the fight, caught sight of 
some loaded hay-waggons, and at once bethought him of 
drawing them up as a shelter for his sharpshooters, whence 
they might pick off the enemy's gunners. When no man 
could at first be found to bring them within range, a girl 
came forward, swung herself up on one of the draught-oxen, 
plied whip and voice, and, bidding her countrymen " not to 
fear the Bavarian dumplings," drove on amongst the bullets 
until, by the aid of the men with other waggons, some shelter 
was provided. From behind this novel rampart the rifle- 
men soon silenced the guns, and a new rush of the Tyrolese 
compelled the surrender of the whole remaining Bavarian 
force. The prisoners were locked up, under a guard of 
women, in an adjacent castle, and, with special care on the 
part of the victors, every trace of a battle was removed. 
The Tyrolese then dispersed among the mountains to await 
the arrival of Generals Wrede and Bisson. When those 
luckless commanders came upon the scene on the following 
day, April 12, they were completely puzzled. No garrison 
was to be found in Sterzing. No one would say a word on 
the matter, and not an armed enemy was in sight. Their 
march was then directed on Innsbruck, and in every defile of 
the mountain road the Tyrolese inflicted severe loss. 

We must now turn to the performances of Spechbacher and 
his men of the Inn valley. All night long between April 11 
and 12, beacon-fires had been blazing on the mountains which 
look down into the streets of Innsbruck. The river Inn, 
which, soon after its rise in the Innthal, at the foot of the 
Alpine heights where trickling mountain rills have joined to 



Specbbacber at Jnnsbrucfe 45 

form a brook, is but a turf-bordered rivulet, flows through the 
capital of Tyrol as a noble stream on its way to cross the 
south-eastern corner of Bavaria and fall into the Danube at 
Passau. On the banks are seen rich fields and forests, with 
here and there the ruins of a fort or castle frowning in 
shattered majesty upon the summit of a rugged precipice. 
Rows of chestnut-trees border the roads, and the craggy 
pinnacles of the lofty North Tyrolese Alps form a stately ridge 
behind the city as viewed from the south, a frame worthy of 
the picture which they partly enclose. 

At dawn, on the morning of April 12, Spechbacher was 
at the gates of Hall. No suspicion of his presence had 
arisen, and when the portals were opened at the usual hour, 
the Tyrolese rushed in and surprised the garrison. The 
officers were seized in their beds ; scarcely a shot was fired, 
and in a few minutes, with the loss of only two peasants, 
four hundred Bavarians became prisoners of war. They 
were marched away to Salzburg, under the usual escort of 
armed women. Hall lies only about seven miles east of 
Innsbruck, and before noon Spechbacher and his men joined 
the Tyrolese from the upper Inn valley, as they were striving 
to capture the two bridges across the river just outside the 
town walls. They had wanted a leader until Spechbacher 
arrived, but then, as he waved his hat and rushed to the front 
with a cry "For the Emperor," a charge was made which 
ended in the clubbing of the Bavarian gunners with the 
butt-end, or their flinging into the river. At this moment 
some of the students of the university reversed the guns 
and poured grape-shot into the Bavarian troops hurrying up 
from the town. The peasants pressed forward, many fighting 
only with clubs and fists. The Tyrolese sharpshooters, who 
now filled the houses near, drove off the cavalry by a deadly 
fire from every window. 

A reinforcement for the Tyrolese soon came up in the 
persons of Major Teimer and some drilled battalions of 



46 1bero patriots 

militia from the upper Inn valley. The Bavarian commander, 
General Kinkel, suggested surrender, but his second-in- 
command, brave Colonel Dittfurt, declaring for death rather 
than submission, as he cried, to "a mob of peasants," made 
a desperate effort to revive the battle. As he spoke he fell 
from his horse, being hit by two bullets, but he struggled 
to his feet, rushed, sword in hand, on the enemy, and was 
now shot through the chest. Even then, with a few officers 
at his back, he attacked a body of Tyrolese who were 
keeping up a hot fire from higher ground, but a fourth bullet, 
in the head, caused him to be carried lifeless from the scene 
of action. His fall brought the surrender of the surviving 
Bavarians, and thus, on the second day of the insurrection, 
the Tyrolese had possession of their country's chief town. 
There was some plundering of townsfolk who were believed 
to have been friendly with the Bavarians, but many acts of 
kindness were done to the vanquished. The only act of 
vengeance on the part of the victors was the destruction of 
the house of a Jew merchant who had purchased church- 
vessels and had carried them in mockery through the streets 
before the eyes of the people. The man's life was spared. 
The Bavarian arms were replaced by the Austrian eagle, 
saluted even with tears of joy by some aged patriots. 

The new day brought fresh success for the rejoicing 
Tyrolese at Innsbruck. We left Wrede, the Bavarian com- 
mander, and his French colleague General Bisson, struggling 
towards Innsbruck from the south, amidst constant attacks 
from the peasantry. At early dawn on April 13, the harassed 
force, from the height of Berg Isel, nearly two miles from 
Innsbruck, looked down upon the city, and a mounted officer 
was sent forward to announce the arrival to Kinkel and 
Dittfurt. As he rode through the town gate he fell from 
his horse, pierced by a bullet, and knew that the Tyrolese 
were in possession of the place. The head of the French 
and Bavarian column had reached Berg Isel at five o'clock. 



JEnemy Surrender to XT^rolese 47 

The Tyrolese barricaded the gates when the enemy's presence 
was known, and prepared for a street-fight. At six o'clock 
the enemy were drawn up for battle on the level ground 
between the hill and the south side of the town, the Bavarians 
on the left, the French on the right. The Tyrolese then, by 
a skilful flank movement, occupied the Berg Isel in force, and 
the enemy were thus enclosed in front and rear. Major 
Teimer, in Innsbruck, caused his prisoner, General Kinkel, to 
send an order for Wrede to dispatch an officer to the town in 
order to learn the real position of affairs. Wrede and a 
French staff-officer went forward, after the skirmishers on 
each side had opened fire. The Bavarian commander was 
detained ; the French staff-officer went back with his report. 
A meeting then took place between Teimer and General 
Bisson at the suburb of Wilten, and the matter ended in 
the capitulation of the whole French and Bavarian forces — 
two generals, a hundred and thirty officers, six thousand men, 
seven guns, and eight hundred horses. Major Teimer was 
created Baron von Wilten, from the place where he received 
the French general's sword. The peasants had no band, 
and the prisoners of war were marched through Innsbruck 
to the strains of their own music. On the day after this 
grand success, the Austrian troops under Chastelar reached 
the capital. In other quarters, good fortune attended the 
Austrian and Tyrolese arms. The Archduke John gained a 
victory, and Hofer struck other blows for his country's cause. 

The Sandwirth, after his victory near Sterzing, led his 
valesmen of Passeyr southwards to Botzen, where he com- 
manded an army composed of his own contingent and of 
the peasants of the Etschthal (Adige valley). With these 
troops he took up a position between Trent and Romagnano. 
He had many actions with the French forces, and succeeded, 
for a time, in clearing southern Tyrol. By the end of April 
the whole country, except the strong fortress of Kufstein, on 
the Bavarian frontier, was in the hands of the Tyrolese. 



48 1bero patriots 

The struggle was, however, only begun. Napoleon was 
enraged when he heard of the defeats of his disciplined troops 
by mere mountaineers, and on May 5 he issued an "Order 
of the day," in which, with an insolent reference to " a certain 
Chastelar, calling himself a general in the Austrian service," 
he accused him of causing insurrection in Tyrol and of 
"massacring" Bavarians, and directed that, in case of capture, 
he should be shot within twenty-four hours. A fresh strong 
invading force was already in the field. On May 1 Salzburg 
was occupied by Bavarians under General Wrede, and by 
French troops under Marshal Lefebvre, Duke of Danzig, a 
man who had risen with great rapidity by ability and courage, 
and had his title from the capture of the town of Danzig in 
the Franco-Prussian war of 1806. Many of the Tyrolese 
peasants had by this time dispersed to their homes, to take 
out their herds to the mountain pastures after the melting of 
the snow. French victories beyond the frontier had also 
compelled the withdrawal of most of the Austrian troops, and 
Chastelar alone remained, encamped in the Inn valley between 
Innsbruck and Hall. The French and Bavarians entered 
Tyrol from the north-east by way of Reichenhall, whence 
the road to Innsbruck lies through a narrow defile, the 
Strub Pass. 

The long and gloomy ravine, shut in between walls of rock, 
is traversed by a road which, with many abrupt turns, winds 
among pine-woods, and around huge projecting rocks, with 
a torrent roaring far below. On May 11, Ascension Day, with 
a brilliant sun shining on slopes decked with the blue and 
pink flowers of the Tyrolese spring, this passage of defence 
was held by about three hundred peasants and soldiers, with 
two six-pounder guns. The enemy's advance-guard, Wrede's 
whole division, composed of fourteen thousand men, with 
several guns, entered the pass, and were received with a hot, 
well-aimed fire. Hundreds of men were killed and wounded, 
and the gorge was carried only after a fight of five hours, eight 



rtfcarsbal Xefetwre at Jnnsbrucft 49 

repulses of the Bavarians, the disabling of one of the Tyrolese 
guns, and an attack on the brave defenders' rear by a detach- 
ment of the foe sent round for the purpose. The struggle 
ended with the slaughter of the wounded peasants lying on 
the road. Few Tyrolese escaped, but they left behind them 
fifteen hundred dead Bavarians. A like desperate resistance 
was made at the Achen gorge, but an almost incessant conflict 
of three days found the invaders still advancing, and on 
May 13 the force under Wrede arrived near the little town 
of Worgl. There he was joined by a French force under 
General Deroy, who, in his advance along the Inn valley, had 
relieved Kufstein from a Tyrolese blockade. During the 
Bavarian march, the Tyrolese stubborn resistance had in- 
furiated the foe to the point of burning villages and slaying 
women and children. 

At Worgl, General Chastelar, with two thousand regular 
Austrian troops, was utterly routed by superior forces, 
escaping from his threatened fate at the hands of Napoleon's 
military commission only by the speed of his horse. During 
the advance upon Innsbruck, the invading forces perpetrated 
atrocious deeds of massacre and plunder. At one village, 
Schwatz, the men, women, and children were all cut down 
and their bodies were flung into the flames of the houses. 
The Bavarian general, Wrede, however, interfered to prevent 
the burning of the little town of Rattenberg, and saved 
the lives of some scores of peasants, taken with arms in 
their hands, from the rage of his French colleague, Lefebvre. 
He also issued strict orders to the Bavarian troops against 
ill-treatment of the people. On May 19 the Duke of Danzig 
entered Innsbruck. In the south of the country, at this 
time, Hofer had been forced to retire by invaders from 
Italy under General Rusca, and he returned to the Passeyr 
valley. There he soon raised fresh forces, and on May 20 
was in Meran, at the head of six thousand men. A new turn 
in the fortunes of the country was close at hand. 

4 



50 Ifoero patriots 

On May 21 Napoleon was defeated by the Archduke 
Charles in the two days' sanguinary battle of Aspern (or 
Essling). Before receiving news of this event, Lefebvre and 
Wrede had returned to Salzburg, with the view of intercepting 
the Archduke John on his march from Italy, and Innsbruck 
was held by the division of General Deroy. The Tyrolese 
were planning the recovery of their capital. Spechbacher was 
a chief hero in the enterprise. He was ready with a force 
at Hall, and on the day of Chastelar's defeat at Worgl he 
had seized at Innsbruck all the weapons and powder that 
could be found. After the enemy had captured Innsbruck, 
the indefatigable Tyrolese leader managed by a stratagem to 
get across the Inn in the face of the Bavarian posts, and then 
he made a rush for the Brenner Pass, in order to see Hofer 
and concert measures for the struggle. On May 23, with 
only four companions, he was at Steinach, to the north of the 
pass, and the five of them, by spreading themselves along the 
mountain-side and taking a fresh position for every shot, 
managed to frighten away a cavalry patrol of some hundreds 
of men sent out to reconnoitre. At the defile of Lueg 
Spechbacher found Hofer, who had come northwards with 
his force, and the Austrian general Buol put twelve hundred 
men and six guns at the disposal of the two leaders. 

On May 24 the Tyrolese army was on the Schonberg 
mountains, overlooking Innsbruck, and preparations were 
made for the memorable battle of Berg Isel, the " Bannock- 
burn " of Tyrolese history. The spot has now become a 
public park containing monuments to Tyrolese who have 
fallen for the fatherland, with a museum of fire-arms, some 
used in the action of 1809 and others once possessed by 
Hofer. The northern end of the hill looks down on Wilten, 
the suburb south of Innsbruck. On May 25 Hofer took up 
his position on the Berg, while Spechbacher held the right 
wing as far as Hall. " Rothbart," Friar Haspinger, com- 
manded on the left, near the villages of Mutters and Natters. 



Usrolese tDictors at Bcxq 3sel 51 

The Tyrolese, in all, were about ^eighteen thousand men. The 
Bavarian army under General Deroy was about twelve thousand 
in number, many of whom were veterans. This force was 
extended along the Inn as far as Hall and Volders, from which 
places, prior to the main engagement, Spechbacher drove the 
enemy with the aid of some Austrian regular troops. The 
Bavarians then, after some vain attempts to storm Berg Isel, 
gathered round Innsbruck. Hofer and his colleagues decided 
on May 29, the day of a great Church festival, for a general 
action. This delay gave Teimer, who was at Landeck, to 
the west, the opportunity of bringing his men down the Inn 
valley to join his countrymen. On the morning of May 28, 
the Bavarians being drawn up to the south of the capital, the 
Tyrolese line faced them in a great crescent, with the left 
at Zirl, ten miles above, and westwards of the town, and the 
right on Volders, about as far away to the east of Innsbruck. 
The action began on the day before that chosen by the 
Tyrolese leaders. Spechbacher assailed the Bavarians on 
their left, while Father Haspinger led the men of Meran, 
with two Austrian companies, by way of the villages of Mutters 
and Natters, down to the marshy ground just above the town 
on the right bank of the Inn. Close fighting ensued, and 
the heroic friar had some narrow escapes. One enemy was 
laid low by a blow from the great crucifix as he was about to 
fire. Another Bavarian, while delivering a bayonet-thrust, was 
stopped by a bullet fired from a Tyrolese rifle over Haspinger's 
shoulder, close enough to singe his red beard. Now and then 
stopping a moment or two to shrive a dying man, the Capuchin 
pushed on at the head of his peasants, who, with bullet and 
butt-end, were slowly and steadily winning their way. It was 
on this occasion that, near a farmhouse called Rainerhof, 
a Tyrolese girl showed a heroism not rare among her sex in 
that country. In the thick of the fight, with a small cask of 
wine on her head and a mug in her hand, she sped about 
giving drink to the Tyrolese and Austrians. A bullet pierced 



52 ttcxo patriots 

the cask and the wine was running down her cheek and neck 
as she laid down the cask and placed her finger in the hole, 
bidding the fighters come and drink while there was wine to 
be had. 

The fighting was of a desperate character. At the Berg 
Isel, the centre of the Tyrolese position, where Hofer was 
in command, the Bavarian attempts to storm were only 
repulsed when the right had been nearly turned. Hofer, 
from his head-quarters on the Schonberg heights, was 
anxiously looking for Teimer from the left. At last he was 
seen, at the head of his column, by the Inn above the town ; 
but ammunition was failing with the Tyrolese. In order to 
gain time, the Tyrolese commander sent a flag of truce to 
Deroy with a summons for surrender. The Bavarians, 
refusing this, sought an armistice for twenty-four hours, which 
was, in turn, declined. On May 29, with fresh supplies of 
ammunition, Hofer massed all his forces in the centre, 
and, sword in hand, charged grandly to the usual cry of 
" For God, the Emperor, and Fatherland." The Bavarians 
were forced back, and, when ammunition was again nearly 
spent, the Tyrolese women and children brought up hand- 
fuls of fired bullets gathered up on the outskirts of the 
struggle. The wounded patriots lay by hundreds on the 
slopes of the hill, declining all help which would lessen 
the number of fighters. At a critical moment Teimer and 
his men suddenly appeared on the Hottingen heights to 
the north of Innsbruck, and the fight continued until dark, 
after a brief suspension by agreement. The Tyrolese lay on 
Berg Isel. During the night, the Bavarian commander, 
feeling his position untenable, had the hoofs of the horses 
and the gun-carriage wheels carefully muffled, and the whole 
force withdrew over the Miihlau bridge, along the Inn valley, 
to Kufstein, and thence across the frontier into Bavaria. 
When morning dawned, not a man could be seen, and the 
Tyrolese peasants, -after beating a trained host of disciplined 



Cbanae of jfortune 53 

men, streamed joyous and victorious, about seven o'clock 
on the morning of May 30, into their capital, won now for 
the second time from the grasp of the Bavarians. 

The fortunes of the Tyrolese patriots were closely connected 
with those of the Austrian forces under the Archduke Charles, 
near Vienna. As long as that great commander could hold 
Napoleon at bay, all would be well for Tyrol. French success 
would assuredly bring a fresh invasion of the country in force. 
For about six weeks after his reverse at the battle of Aspern- 
Essling, the French emperor was shut up in the island of 
Lobau, in the Danube, awaiting reinforcements, and pre- 
paring the famous bridges of his own design for a crossing 
to the northern bank and a renewal of the contest. In the 
Tyrol, the enemy was meanwhile driven back in every other 
quarter, and the war was carried, through Vorarlberg, the 
district north-east of Tyrol, into Wiirtemberg and Swabia, 
where the peasants released the prisoners taken in the battles 
between the French and Austrians, and brought them to join 
in the struggle for the Austrian cause in Tyrol. At the be- 
ginning of June, Hofer had relieved Count de Linanges, a 
man much beloved by the Tyrolese, who was besieged by 
the enemy at Trent (Trient), and he was on the point of 
effecting a junction, at the head of a large force, with the 
troops which were to capture Klagenfurt, and so open com- 
munication between Tyrol and Austria, when his action was 
paralysed by the receipt of news of disaster for the Austrians. 
Dark days were coming for the land just freed by the arms 
of her own heroic sons. We should here record that, after 
the glorious success at Berg Isel, a despatch from Innsbruck 
sent the tidings to the Emperor Francis, and a letter from 
him, dated on the lucky day, crossed the despatch, and 
was found to contain a solemn assurance that "my faithful 
country of Tyrol shall never more be separated from the 
empire of Austria, and I will sign no peace except one 
which shall re-unite the country to my monarchy." This 



54 t>ero patriots 

was written, of course, after the Aspern victory, and the 
conqueror on that dreadful day of carnage, the Archduke 
Charles, wrote to Chastelar, after he had abandoned the 
struggle, in words of encouragement for " the brave Tyrolese." 

Never was a people more cruelly betrayed. On July 5 
Napoleon 'again crossed the Danube, and on that and the 
following day he overthrew the archduke's forces in the 
great battle of Wagram. The armistice of Znaim, signed 
on July 12, 1809, arranged that all the Austrian troops 
should leave Tyrol, and left the country again to Bavarian 
rule. The land, of which not a word was said in the arm- 
istice, was thus abandoned, as the territory of mere rebels 
against France, to Napoleon's mercy. The Tyrolese, struck 
to the heart by the falsification of their Kaiser's pledge, 
were full of rage. Some were for arresting the Austrian 
general Buol, depriving his soldiers of their cannon and 
ammunition, disarming all who would not join a new insur- 
rection, and shooting the French and Bavarian prisoners. 
Calm reflection succeeded to this patriotic frenzy, and the 
Austrian troops quitted Tyrol according to the terms of the 
armistice. A feeling of despair at first prevailed. The bands 
dispersed. Hofer took refuge on the Schneeberg, near the 
Passeyr valley, but he was brought out from his place of 
hiding by news that his valiant comrades Spechbacher, Has- 
pinger, and Peter Mayer were again in the field. The chief 
command was assigned to the Sandwirth, a choice which 
brought large reinforcements to the patriots, while many 
Austrian soldiers deserted in order to join him. The 
Tyrolese were once more fully roused for action against 
foreign conquest and tyranny. 

Napoleon was resolved to finally crush Tyrolese resistance, 
and he despatched Marshal Lefebvre for the purpose with an 
army of about forty thousand French, Saxons, and Bavarians. 
The Duke of Danzig, on July 30, entered Innsbruck, ordered 
all weapons to be given up within forty-eight hours, and 



Uterolese 1Rtee Hoatn 55 

summoned the leaders to immediate surrender. It was on 
this occasion that Hofer, being charged to appear before 
Lefebvre at Innsbruck on August n, sent the memorable 
reply : "I will do so, but it will be at the head of ten thousand 
riflemen." The men were soon ready and marching with 
their leader through the rocky defiles that guard his native 
valley of Passeyr. Lefebvre sent one of his divisions, under 
General Rouyer, across the Brenner Pass to Sterzing, on its 
way to Brixen and Botzen, in order to pacify Southern Tyrol. 
Another force was dispatched westwards up the Inn valley, 
to march round by Landeck, and southwards and eastwards 
through the Etsch (Adige) valley, for junction with Rouyer's 
force at Botzen. In order to meet these movements, a body 
of Tyrolese, under Haspinger and other leaders, occupied the 
Eisach valley, south of Sterzing, on August 2, and seized the 
Peisser bridge, where the road crosses the river Eisach 
between the hamlets of Oberau and Unterau (" Upper " and 
" Lower " Meadow). There they were joined by Spechbacher 
and the men of the Pustherthal, east of Brixen, and preparations 
were carefully made to give a warm reception to the advancing 
foe. The Duke of Danzig was with the rear of Rouyer's 
division, and on his stay at Sterzing he found fault, as he 
departed, with the poor fare for his breakfast at the little inn. 
He left his hostess with the words, " Never mind, I shall have 
a famous dinner to-day at Brixen." 

The invading force left Sterzing, marching south, at dawn on 
August 4, and at seven o'clock the vanguard, composed of more 
than two thousand Saxons, entered the narrow gorge below 
Mauls, south-east of Sterzing. There they were brought to a 
stand by a barricade, under a severe fire from the Tyrolese on 
the mountain-side. Many of the Saxons were also maimed 
or killed by a torrent of rocks rolled down by the peasants. 
Having cleared away the obstacles, after heavy loss, the column 
struggled forward for about five miles to Mittelwald, and was 
there compelled to clear the road with grape-shot, as many 



56 Ifoero patriots 

hundreds of marksmen, in front and on both flanks, poured in 
their fire. As they neared the little wooden bridge over the 
Eisach at Oberau, it was crossed by the peasants and set on 
fire, and then came one of the most terrible scenes in the 
whole Tyrolese war. At a signal-cry from the heights, a voice 
of doom for many hundreds of brave men, a rumble, succeeded 
by a roar of sound, gave token that the awful " stone-battery " 
of the mountaineers was in action. Rocks and tree-trunks, 
placed on platforms ready to be cut loose, rolled down on 
both sides, crushing countless files of the Saxons, and cutting 
the column fairly in two. By night-fall, thirteen hundred of 
the invaders had perished, and the remnant of them, after a 
brave defence, was forced to surrender. The scene of this 
tragic episode of the war is still known as the "Sachsen- 
Klemme," or " Saxons' Gorge." 

The main body of the column under Rouyer, after this 
discomfiture for the vanguard, withdrew to Sterzing in dis- 
orderly style, harassed all the way by the fire of the Tyrolese, 
and the Duke of Danzig, returning to the same inn in wrath 
and confusion, was greeted with the hope, from his hostess of 
the previous day, that " he had enjoyed his famous dinner." 
Such a man as Lefebvre was not, however, to be daunted by 
one disaster, and at three in the morning of August 7, the 
marshal, with seven thousand men and ten guns, left Sterzing 
again for Mauls, clad himself as a private soldier, as a pro- 
tection from the special aim of the Tyrolese marksmen. 
Skirmishers were sent up and round to clear the heights, 
and Haspinger, who was in command of the peasants, with- 
drew his men for attack at the most favourable points for 
their action. Reinforcements had reached the Tyrolese, 
and to shorten the story, we may state that, with a narrow 
escape of his own life, the marshal and his men, after 
severe fighting, were driven back in confusion to Sterzing. 

There was no rest there for the roughly handled invaders 
of the Tyrol. Returning to Hofer, whom we left with his 



flfcarsbal Xefebvre Befeatefc 57 

men in the Passeyr valley, we find that they made their way 
over the Jaufen Pass, to the west of Sterzing, where they 
were joined by the swiftly moving, energetic Spechbacher. 
At Sterzing Moos (or Moss, Moor), a place we already know, 
the marshal, with fresh men from Innsbruck, attacked the 
Tyrolese with the utmost fury. He was repulsed with severe 
loss in each of three attempts, and was forced on August 10 
to order a retreat to Innsbruck, leaving behind him fifteen 
hundred prisoners and eight guns. We turn to the fortunes 
of the column sent westwards from the capital, for the pro- 
jected junction with Rouyer's division at Botzen. The 
invaders were met by the Tyrolese at the bridge of Pontlatz, 
in a gorge above Landeck, the memorable spot where the 
Elector of Bavaria's troops had been so severely handled 
in 1703. Assailed by the "stone-batteries," they were so 
treated that, after heavy loss in killed and wounded, many 
of the survivors had to surrender, and on August 10 the 
column returned to Innsbruck, weakened by over twenty 
officers and more than a thousand men. 

At Innsbruck, the Duke of Danzig ("the Danziger," as the 
Tyrolese scornfully styled the eminent marshal), gathered an 
army of twenty-five thousand infantry, a thousand horse, and 
forty guns. The Tyrolese, flushed with victory, massed all 
their forces in order to make an end of the invaders. On 
August 12 both sides had a needful rest. The following day, 
August 13, was Sunday, and at early morning the brave 
Haspinger, Father Joachim the friar, said mass in the 
church of Schonberg, a little town about eight miles due 
south of the capital. The scene of conflict was to be again 
Berg Isel, and Hofer was once more in chief command. 
As a specimen of his pithy speeches, we give Hofer's words 
to his men after service : " Are you all here, Tyrolese ? 
Then we will advance. You have heard mass, you have 
taken your dram. In the name of God, then ! " Another 
service was still being held in the great abbey-church of 



58 Ibero patriots 

Wilten when the first shots were fired. The centre of the 
patriot army, under Hofer, was on Berg Isel ; the left wing 
was commanded, as in the spring, by Haspinger; the right 
wing was again led by Spechbacher. The French marshal, 
in order to keep open a line of retreat down the Inn valley, 
had detached a body of troops under Count Arco to hold 
the village of Schwatz, nearly twenty miles east of Innsbruck, 
and the forces on the field were about twenty thousand 
men on each side. 

It was about two in the afternoon when Lefebvre ordered an 
attack on the Tyrolese positions. Under cover of a severe fire 
from well-served guns, two of his regiments stormed Berg Isel, 
while others attacked the village of Amras, on the eastern side 
of the river Sill. The battle was fought with the utmost resolu- 
tion. The men of Passeyr, under Hofer, were at last forced 
back, and Spechbacher and his men were driven from their 
positions. On the left, the Tyrolese were successful, repulsing 
all the enemy's attacks, and, under Haspinger's heroic leader- 
ship, driving their assailants fairly back into the plain. The 
Bavarians then began to set fire to the houses, and aroused 
the Tyrolese to fresh fury. After being re-formed under 
cover of the adjacent woods, they poured forth in masses, 
and firing a volley from their rifles, rushed to close quarters 
with the butt-end, their favourite weapon, and soon retook 
their old positions. Several fresh assaults were made by 
Lefebvre, but all were repulsed. Fighting went on through 
the night, and at last the peasant forces captured the Sill 
bridge in Innsbruck itself. The victors lost a few hundreds 
of men ; the vanquished were weakened by some thousands, 
including many prisoners and some guns. At Schwatz, 
Count Arco had fallen by a Tyrolese bullet, and his men 
were driven from their ground. 

At seven o'clock on the evening of August 14 Marshal 
Lefebvre marched out of the capital for Schwatz, on his way of 
retreat to Kufstein, and entrenched himself in the village for 



XT^rolese IRecapture 3nti8brucfe 59 

a few days, but the forces under Haspinger and Spechbacher 
were pressing around him, and he thought it prudent on 
August 19 to retire to Salzburg. For the third time, the 
Tyrolese had won possession of their capital and cleared Tyrol 
of their foes. Lefebvre, in his retirement from Innsbruck, had 
carried away two important prisoners, the Count of Sarntheim 
and the widowed Baroness von Sternbach. Another captive, 
still more valuable to the Tyrolese, Joseph Straub, made a 
clever escape by a sudden rush to the river Inn, into which 
he plunged and hid himself under one of the arches of the 
bridge. The Duke of Danzig, in his despatch to Napoleon, 
described his defeat and flight as " a retrograde movement — 
one of those retreats of which history speaks so much." The 
facts spoke more truly for themselves, and at an interview later 
on, Napoleon scornfully said, " Well, M. le Marechal, have you 
learnt military tactics from the Tyrolese this time ? " 

Hofer on August 14, as Commander-in-chief of Tyrol, 
entered Innsbruck in triumph, in an open carriage drawn 
by four greys, and took up his abode at the Golden Eagle, 
whence he delivered a short, quaint speech to the enraptured 
peasants who had fought so well for " God, Emperor, and 
Fatherland." He was just in time to save the town from 
being plundered by those who had regarded the Tyrolese 
cause as lost, and from mischief at the hands of the excited 
victors. An hour or two after his entry, the Sandwirth was 
told, as he sat at supper, that the mountaineers in the place 
were becoming unruly, and were about to seize the weapons 
that Lefebvre had taken in the neighbouring villages and 
stored in the Burg or palace. He rushed to the window, 
looking down on the noisy throng of excited men, in their 
bright green and red coats and vests and embroidered belts, 
and as their hats decked with flowers and black cocks' tails 
were flung high in the air, he cried, " What are you here 
for ? Is it to rob and plague people ? You ought to be 
ashamed of yourselves. W r hy don't you go after the enemy ? 



6o 1bero patriots 

They are not too far off. Go after them to the lowlands. 
Go, I say, for I won't have you here ! And if you don't do 
as I bid you, I won't be your leader any more ! " With a 
loud laugh and a cheer the men went their way. 

When order had been fully restored, Hofer, as Governor 
of Tyrol and Viceroy of the Emperor, took up his abode 
at the Burg, the palace of former governors, and issued 
an edict for a general thanksgiving. The innkeeper who, 
with other gallant chiefs, had freed his country from foreign 
domination, well bore the severe test of a sudden rise to 
greatness and power. During his brief tenure of office he 
was never known to abuse it in any instance. Great in his 
simplicity of spirit and manners, he adorned his high and 
honourable post. His body-guard consisted of his rough 
peasant brothers-in-arms, men who sat about in the ante- 
rooms in their shirt-sleeves, smoking long pipes, as they 
waited to admit in their turns the many visitors to " Father 
Hofer." He would have no title of "Excellency" or " Von 
Hofer." " I am Andere Hofer the peasant," was his reply 
to such greetings. His only mark of distinction was a hat 
with a plume of feathers and an inscription, this head-orna- 
ment being a present from the Ursuline Sisters at Innsbruck. 
Still wearing the green coat, red waistcoat, leathern belt and 
breeches of his life in the Passeyr valley, he lived, for 
his own food, on about tenpence a day. He was fond of 
entertaining his friends at supper, after which none could 
depart without joining in the evening prayers. Assisted in 
his rule by a council, Hofer passed many good laws and 
decrees. The ecclesiastical institutions of Meran, Botzen, and 
Marienberg were restored, and a new coinage of twenty-kreuzer 
pieces, known as " Sandwirth's Zwanzigers " (from Zwanzig, 
twenty), was issued. These coins are still regarded in Tyrol 
as precious relics and memorials of a glorious phase in her 
history. 

On September 29 there arrived at the Burg Hofer's former 



Hnotber Cban^e of fortune 61 

adjutant, Eisenstecken, and Major Sieberer, bearing a despatch 
from the Emperor Francis. All the acts of the Sandwirth, 
and his appointment as governor of Tyrol, were therein con- 
firmed, and a gold medal and chain of honour were sent as 
decorations for the chief deliverer of the land. With these 
ornaments on October 4, the Emperor's " name-day," Hofer 
was solemnly invested in the great Franciscan Church, the 
Hofkirche, by the Bishop of Wilten. The bells rang merrily 
as the procession returned to the palace for a grand banquet. 
The Sandwirth's speech on that occasion has been preserved, 
and is characteristic of the man: "Gentlemen, I thank you. 
News I have none to give you to-day. I have three mes- 
sengers on the road, Hansel Watcher, Seppel Sixten, and 
Franz Memmet; the lot of them might have been here 
long ago. I expect the vagabonds every hour." This was 
Hofer's last day of happiness in his country's good-fortune. 

On that same evening, as the governor sat at the theatre, 
where a piece was being played in his honour, he was made 
restless and wretched by reports which came of a permanent 
peace between France and Austria. He left the place, and 
was found by a friend standing beneath one of the lanterns 
hung by great chains across the narrow street. "He could 
not," he said, "enjoy the honours rendered to him when 
he knew the cause was not prospering elsewhere." He was 
right. The disgraceful Treaty of Schonbrunn, signed that 
very day, made no mention whatever of the land whose 
gallant people had displayed the utmost loyalty, the highest 
heroism, the deepest devotion, the extreme of self-sacrifice, 
for their own freedom and for the rights of the Austrian 
crown. They were left to the tender mercies of the con- 
queror whom their stubborn resistance and their destruction 
of his troops had enraged. Handed back again to Bavarian 
sway, the Tyrol was doomed to fresh invasion by forces 
which it was impossible to overcome. Internal troubles of 
dissension arose, and Hofer's influence was taxed to calm 



62 ibero patriots 

districts where the people, despairing of their country's future, 
gave way to turbulence and various excesses. 

The new invasion began with the occupation of the 
Pustherthal by General Rusca, and an irruption of the 
French from Italy under Peyri. The north of Tyrol was 
entered by Generel Drouet d'Erlon with three Bavarian 
divisions under the Crown Prince, Wrede, and Leroy. This 
large force came from Salzburg by way of the Strub Pass, 
which Spechbacher bravely, but vainly, strove to defend. 
On October 16 he was utterly defeated, and his young son 
was taken prisoner. The father had barely escaped capture, 
and the captors of the son cruelly showed him a part of 
his father's dress and his sword stained with blood, with 
the declaration that he was killed. The lad, with bitter 
tears flowing, was taken to Bavaria, where he was kindly 
received at Munich by the king, and sent for education 
to the Royal School. The truth as to Spechbacher was 
that, after he was wounded, his peasants carried him up into 
the mountains, and placed him beyond reach of pursuit. 
Friar Haspinger, for his part, had fled with the remains of 
Spechbacher's force, and Hofer, leaving Innsbruck towards 
the end of October, took up his quarters first at Schonberg, 
and then on the Berg Isel, waiting the approach of Drouet 
d'Erlon. A formal announcement of the signing of the 
peace had reached the Sandwirth from that officer, and a 
copy of a proclamation, in the same sense, arrived from 
Prince Eugene Beauharnais, Napoleon's stepson, who had 
the chief command in the new campaign. The peasants 
would not believe that their Kaiser had forsaken them until 
the evil news was confirmed by a letter from the Archduke 
John, whom all loved and trusted, bidding the Tyrolese to 
lay down their arms. 

Hofer thereupon called a council, at which it was decided 
that further resistance was useless, and that Prince Eugene's 
proclamation must be accepted. The carriage was already 



TTsrolese final Efforts 6 3 

horsed to convey the Sandwirth for his surrender to the 
Prince Royal of Bavaria, when Haspinger arrived in hot 
haste, and managed, by his vehement assurances, to con- 
vince Hofer that the whole thing was a delusion. The 
Tyrolese leader accordingly wrote to Joseph Straub of Hall, 
stating his purpose of making "a desperate stroke." The 
contest was renewed in several quarters, and assumed an 
atrocious aspect. The Bavarians wantonly burnt to the 
ground the large thriving village of Zirl, a few miles west 
of Innsbruck, an outrage followed by a day of vengeance 
and victory for the peasants, a conflict in which the wife 
fought beside her husband, the sister by her brother, the 
maiden by her father's or her lover's side. A terrible slaughter 
on both parts occurred, three hundred and twenty Tyrolese 
women being cut down by the Italian cavalry. These men, in 
their turn, were slain in hundreds by the maddened Tyrolese. 
Early in November, General Wrede succeeded in surprising 
the Tyrolese position on Berg Isel while the peasants were 
celebrating a festival in the neighbouring churches. A fierce 
struggle of three hours ended in the enemy's retention of 
the battle-field. Spechbacher held out all day, but at last 
fell back on Rinn, and Hofer, crossing the Brenner Pass, 
sent envoys to Prince Eugene and to D'Erlon. To the 
latter, he proposed to disperse his men on condition that 
the French troops remained stationary until the peasants 
reached their homes. D'Erlon at once published this letter 
as an unconditional surrender, and threatened to shoot any 
one found in arms. The Sandwirth then retired to Sterzing, 
where he received the answer from Prince Eugene. The 
tone was one of conciliation. The people were bidden to 
resume their ordinary occupations, and assured that all 
complaints should be listened to. Hofer then issued a pro- 
clamation bidding the peasants to lay down their arms. 
The Bavarian prisoners were released, and the Tyrolese 
leader returned to his Passeyr valley. 



64 f>ero ipatriots 

We must now record the one fault of Hofer's great career. 
He was bound by his own published words, but in patriotism 
he was a real fanatic. When the mountaineers, mad with 
despair, came round him with entreaties and even with threats, 
he could not stand firm, and at his bidding the people, in 
some quarters, again rushed to arms. Donay, one of the 
envoys sent to Prince Eugene, knowing the real condition 
of affairs, strove to quiet the people, but he was fiercely 
denounced as a traitor to the country and the Sandwirth, 
and at his own home his mother greeted him with scorn as 
" seller of souls ! " Rusca and Baraguay d'Hilliers, coming 
from Italy, had to fight their way at every step along the 
Pustherthal, and at the old Castle of Tyrol, near Meran, 
Rusca was defeated with great loss by Haspinger. At St. 
Leonhard, in the Passeyr valley, Hofer, after three days' 
conflict, compelled over a thousand Frenchmen, who had 
crossed the Jaufen Pass in pursuit of him, to lay down their 
arms. At another point, in a narrow defile, a pursuing 
Bavarian force was compelled to capitulate through a sudden 
attack made by the wives of the Tyrolese fugitives, armed 
with guns and scythes. All heroic efforts were, however, vain 
against the great hostile forces and the wintry weather, which 
rendered mountain warfare impossible. By the middle of 
December, most of the chiefs had accepted the amnesty 
offered by Prince Eugene. Hofer declined to surrender on 
promise of a safe-conduct and a pardon, and, knowing that 
some of his countrymen would remain in arms as long as he 
appeared in the field, he suddenly vanished from the scene. 
His three daughters were placed in safety with a friend, at 
St. Martin, and his wife and son went to live on the Schneeberg. 
The hero withdrew to his native valley of Passeyr, and took 
refuge in a mountain retreat some leagues away from his inn. 
His abode was a tiny pasture-hut, belonging to a man named 
Pfandler. It was situated on the Brantach mountain, high 
above the Passeyr valley. On one side, approach was made 



lEtib of Struggle 65 

impossible by a deep ravine, with a torrent dashing in foam 
along the bottom ; on the other, the place could only be 
reached by a very difficult path. A little dell on the mountain- 
side had a level space for the hut, and a thick covering of 
fir-trees and brushwood made the spot an excellent one for 
concealment. There Hofer lived, with his young secretary, 
Sweth, existing partly on game shot with bow and arrows, 
and on roots and berries, and partly on supplies brought by 
faithful friends. 

Thus had ended the last Tyrolese rising against Bavaria and 
France. The trampling out of the embers of revolt was 
attended by atrocious cruelty, especially in the Brixen district 
and in the Pustherthal. At one village, a peasant was shot in 
presence of his ten children, as they begged for mercy. At 
another, an old man was condemned to die unless his son, a 
young lieutenant, surrendered himself. The young man, who 
was hiding in the forest, at once came in, and was shot close 
to his own door before the eyes of his father and of his wife, 
the body being left there hanging on a gibbet. The spot is 
now marked by a little chapel, with the hideous tragedy 
painted on the walls. Peter Mayr, an innkeeper near Brixen, 
one of the leaders, was tried by court-martial at Botzen, and 
doomed to die. He could have saved his life by a declaration 
that he had not read and understood Prince Eugene's procla- 
mation of November 13, but he walked calmly to death rather 
than tell a lie. Haspinger and Spechbacher had narrow 
escapes. The heroic friar made his way into Switzerland, 
and thence back, by lonely paths, into Carinthia, whence he 
journeyed to Vienna. He long survived the struggle in which 
he won undying fame, ending his days at Salzburg in 1858. 
Spechbacher's adventures were most romantic. His know- 
ledge of the mountain-land, gained during his life as a 
poacher, was of great service. Once he was betrayed, by 
a villainous countryman, to the Bavarians, and the house 
was surrounded, but the hunted man climbed on to the roof, 

5 



66 1bero patriots 

took a flying leap, and darted into the forest. During a 
month's hiding, he was nearly dead from cold and hunger. 
As he wandered, he met his wife and children, who were in 
little better condition, as they fled from pursuit. For some 
weeks the whole family hid together on the Volderberg, and 
then came compulsory flight, the wife and children being at 
last permitted to return home. Until March 1810 Spech- 
bacher lived in a cavern on the hills, and from that spot 
he was swept away by an avalanche for a quarter of a mile 
down, and found himself with a dislocated hip. He dragged 
himself, in torture, to the village of Volderberg, and was 
taken by a peasant to his own home at Rinn. The place 
was occupied by Bavarian troops, and for six weeks the 
Tyrolese hero lay hidden in his own cow-house, through the 
help of his faithful man-servant. His wife was not in the 
secret, lest her anxiety should betray him. He daily saw 
and heard the Bavarian soldiers, but at last their departure 
allowed his escape, across the Styrian Alps, to* Vienna, 
where he was joined by his wife and children. Spechbacher, 
one of the bravest patriots of modern days, died at his old 
home, at Hall, in 1830. We must now take up the last 
scenes in the career of Andreas Hofer. 

In November, a heavy fall of snow had covered the 
mountains, and the cold was terribly severe in the little 
dwelling on the Pfandler Alp, where no fire could be lit for 
fear of attracting attention to a place usually vacant in the 
winter months. In many messages, including one from the 
Emperor Francis, the patriot was implored to make his escape 
to Vienna ; but he resisted all entreaties, declaring that he was 
saving himself for his country's future service ; that he could 
not quit her soil ; that if his enemies found him, they must 
take him ; he would not be seized as one who had deserted 
his post. It is in this fanatical, and, as the selfish cynic would 
describe it, this almost besotted devotion to his beloved Tyrol, 
that we are to find the chief source of his countrymen's 



•footer JSetrasefc 67 

devotion to the Sandwirth. December passed away quietly 
with Hofer and Sweth. The year 1810 opened in gloom 
and storm. A price of 6,000 gulden (about ^500 ) had 
been set on the hero's head. One man alone was tempted 
thereby. To the disgrace of humanity, this was a friend to 
whose son Hofer had given his name " Andreas " at the font. 
The name of the wretch was Franz Raffl. He was on the 
look-out to earn the blood-money, and his chance came 
through Hofer's incaution, due to his love for wife and son. 
One day they appeared at the hut door, taking refuge from 
their abode on the Schneeberg, which had become unsafe, 
and a fire was lit to warm them in their distress. The thin 
blue wreath of smoke was seen by the traitor as it rose against 
the snows of the Brantach mountain. One morning, Hofer, 
as he stepped from the gloomy hut into the clear frosty air, 
found Raffl lurking close at hand. He begged him to keep 
his secret, and gave him all the money he could spare. The 
promiserwas given, but the man went straight to the Bavarian 
official at St. Leonhard, and made report of his discovery 

A force of 1,500 men was sent up the Passeyr valley from 
Meran, guided by Raffl, and after marching nearly all night 
they reached the village of St. Martin. A detachment of 
600 men made their way up the Brantach mountain, and they 
reached the Pfandler Alp at early morning on January 20, 
1 8 10. The secretary, Sweth, was the first to hear the trampling 
of feet, and he and young Hofer sprang, half-dressed, from the 
window of the hay-loft. They were at once seized, bound, 
and laid down on the snow. In a few moments the hut-door 
was opened, and the Sandwirth appeared, saying to the 
officer in command, " I am Andere Hofer. Do as you like 
with me. I am the guilty one. I ask mercy for my' wife, my 
son, and this young man ; they are innocent." He was at 
once seized and bound, submitting thereto without a struggle. 
When he heard that 600 men were close at hand, and that 
nearly a thousand more troops were in the valley to support 



68 l>ero patriots 

them, he stood erect, and smiled with a disdainful pride. The 
captors behaved with gross brutality. A cord was flung 
round the hero's neck ; his hands were bound with cruel 
tightness behind his back ; and when he was helpless he was 
struck and insulted, even to the plucking out of pieces of 
his long black beard until the blood came and froze on his 
face. The prisoners were then marched down to St. Martin, 
along the rough, slippery path. The young Hofer and Sweth 
were without coats or shoes, and their feet were cut on the 
icy road. The Sandwirth bade them be courageous and 
patient, saying, " Thus we can do penance for our sins." 
The Sand Inn, Hofer's old abode, was plundered by the 
troops left at St. Martin, and then for several hours the patriot 
marched, ill-treated and mocked, through his own beloved 
valley of Passeyr. Every door was closed; no face was 
at any window. No Tyrolese would behold the humiliation 
of their adored defender. He was then conveyed from 
Meran by carriage through the beautiful Adige valley to 
Botzen. 

The brave and kindly General Baraguay d'Hilliers, on 
seeing the bonds and blood of the victim, expressed the utmost 
indignation at the treatment accorded to the illustrious prisoner, 
and received him with the respect due to his noble character. 
After some conversation with him he expressed his opinion 
to his staff in these terms : " There is something of the 
antique in that man; when I look on him, I imagine that 
I see a good brave knight of the days of Peter the Hermit." 
The captive, during his brief stay at Botzen, was lodged in 
a comfortable room, and many of his countrymen were 
admitted to see him. On the way to Mantua, after taking 
leave of his wife and son, the simple piety and courage of 
Hofer were admirably shown. At the place of one halt for 
the night, the officers of the escort invited him to share their 
supper. The table was well spread, but it chanced to be a 
fast-day of the Church, and Hofer, finding nothing suitable 



Wapoleon's J5ase Coquet 6 9 

for the occasion, sat down by the stove, recited the evening 
prayers, and supped afterwards on dry bread. The drinking 
of the military party was so deep that the house was set on 
fire, and Hofer, springing out of bed, saved the life of the 
sentry at his door by dragging him outside as he was being 
suffocated, in his sleep, with smoke. He would not escape 
in the confusion, as " it was against his honour." When the 
party reached Mantua, the prisoner was placed in a fortress 
on the banks of the Mincio. On the night of February 18 
a court-martial was held, the president being General Bisson, 
the officer whom we have seen compelled to surrender to 
Martin Teimer at the first Tyrolese capture of Innsbruck. 
The votes were divided. All were for sparing the prisoner's 
life. Two were for complete acquittal. The fate of Hofer 
was, however, in the hands of one of the most vindictive of 
mankind, a man devoid of all chivalrous and generous feel- 
ing towards those who dared to oppose his will. No act of 
Napoleon's whole career, save, perhaps, the murder of the 
Due d'Enghien, has left a worse stain on his memory than 
his base and cruel treatment of the Tyrolese hero-patriot. 
The victor over Austria was about to marry the emperor's 
daughter, the Archduchess Maria Louisa, and it was certain 
that Austrian intercession would be made on Hofer's behalf. 
Such a request, under all the circumstances, could scarcely be 
refused, and thus, in order to ensure Hofer's death, an order 
was dispatched for his execution within twenty-four hours after 
the closing of the court-martial. When all was over, Napoleon, 
with the meanest duplicity, caused his minister at Vienna to 
express to the emperor extreme regret for Hofer's hasty 
execution, with the assurance that his master would have 
prevented it, if it had been possible. 

General Bisson did himself honour by his exertions to save 
a noble foe. He visited him in his cell, and offered him his 
life on condition of his joining the French service ; this being, 
as Bisson knew, the only chance. The answer came, " I 



70 Ifoero patriots 

remain faithful to the House of Austria and the good emperor 
Franz." During his last hours, Hofer prophesied the restora- 
tion of Tyrol to her lawful sovereign, and spoke with deep 
interest on her rights and claims. At five o'clock in the 
morning of February 20, 18 10, he wrote his last wishes, in 
quaint, homely phrases of the Tyrolese dialect, to his brother- 
in-law in the Passeyr valley. The letter, expressive of the most 
sincere and simple piety, is touching and sublime in resigna- 
tion to the will of God. Among the last words are, " Farewell, 
vain world ! Dying appears to me so easy that my eyes do not 
become wet," and " the landlady " (Hofer's wife, as he was 
the Sandwirth or landlord of the Sand Inn), " must not be too 
much distressed." This letter is still preserved at his former 
abode, the Wirthshaus am Sand. The cross which he always 
wore on his breast is in the Museum at Innsbruck. 

Clad in the dress of a Tyrolese soldier, with a priest at his 
side, Hofer moved forth from his prison to die. As he passed 
the Porta Molina, a fort in which many Tyrolese were con- 
fined, he was sorely tried by the sound of the weeping and 
the prayers of the prisoners on his behalf. At the citadel, 
many of his countrymen, at large on parole, were assembled, 
and pressing as close as possible to the escort, they knelt and 
implored his blessing. He was permitted to address to them 
a few words of comfort, of assurance of his love for Tyrol, 
and of sorrow for having engaged them in a struggle that 
ended in failure. On a broad bastion near the Porta Ceresa 
the party halted for the execution. Hofer then delivered to the 
priest, Manifesti, all his remaining personal property — five 
hundred florins in Austrian notes, his silver snuff-box, and 
his beautiful rosary. The body of grenadiers then formed 
a square, open in the rear. Twelve men and a corporal 
stepped forward, while Hofer stood alone in the centre. 
Being requested to have his eyes bandaged and to kneel, 
he declined both, saying, " I have been used to stand upright 
before my Maker, and in that posture I will deliver up my 



footer's Burial 71 

spirit to Him." The first volley, given at his word, brought 
him wounded to his knees. Striving to raise himself, he cried, 
" Ah ! how ill you aim ! " Then the corporal, putting a pistol 
to his head, pulled the trigger, and finished Napoleon's evil 
work on a man who was, morally, vastly his superior. Thus 
perished, in the prime of life, to the deepest grief of his 
countrymen and amid the respect of the worthier of his 
foes, one of the truest and finest heroes and patriots of 
modern days. 

The body of Hofer was at once borne on a black bier by the 
grenadiers to the Church of St. Michael, instead of being left, 
as usual in a military execution, lying on the ground for a time. 
After lying in state under a guard of honour, the remains were 
buried, with a solemnity worthy of the brave French officers 
and troops who attended the ceremony, in the priest's garden 
near the church, the grave being covered with a marble slab. 
The patriot's body was not destined to remain long interred on 
foreign soil. In January 1823 a battalion of Tyrolese Jagers 
was quartered at Mantua, and six of the officers, two of whom 
were of Tyrolese birth, resolved to remove the remains to 
Innsbruck. They were there solemnly re-interred in the 
Hofkirche, the coffin being borne by six old comrades-in-arms, 
all innkeepers, and the tomb was covered by a massive and 
simple monument. On a block of marble is carved in relief a 
scene representing six Tyrolese swearing fidelity to Austria on 
the white banner. Above stands the figure of Hofer in his 
usual dress, holding a banner with his favourite words "For 
God, Emperor, and Fatherland." A good pension was 
bestowed on the patriot's widow and children, and the family 
was ennobled as " Von Hofer, of Passeyr." The little pasture- 
hut, his last place of refuge, still stands on the Pfandler Alp. 
At the inn above the river, lately belonging to Hofer's grand- 
son, residing at Vienna, are many carefully kept relics of the 
patriot. The traitor Raffi died in want and misery in Bavaria, 
loathed by all his countrymen. We close this record by 



72 1bero patriots 

stating that on one side of Hofer's grave now lie the remains 
of his faithful friend and gallant comrade-in-arms, Joseph 
Spechbacher ; on the other, those of the noble friar, Joachim 
Haspinger. The wide world contains no more interesting 
shrine for all lovers of heroism consecrated by devotion to the 
cause of freedom. 



CHAPTER III 

THE GREEK WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 
1821— 1827 

A GROUP OF HEROES : GEORGIOS KARAISKAKIS ; MARKOS 
BOZZARIS; ANDREAS MIAULIS \ KONSTANTINOS KANARIS 

Greek Independence — How effected — Character of Struggle — Greece in 
18th Century — Effect of French Revolution — Chief Elements of 
Greek Population — The Primates — The Klephts — Turkish Oppres- 
sion — The Poet Pheraeos — Rising Spirit of Revolution — Sultan 
Mahmoud II. — Failure of First Insurrection — The Rising in Southern 
Greece — Cruel Deeds of Greeks — Events in the Morea — Koloko- 
trones — Rising North of Morea — State of Athens — Christians block- 
ade Acropolis — Mesolonghi in Revolt — Successes of Patriots — The 
Naval Contest — Islands of Hydra, Psara, and Spetzas — More Greek 
Cruelty — Greek Raids on Asia Minor — The Rival Fleets meet — 
The Greek Leader Miaulis — Greek Fire-ships at Work — Turkish 
Cruelties — Fighting in the Morea — Turks defeated — Navarin taken 
by Greeks — Bad Conduct of Greek Leaders — Success of Egyptian 
Squadron against Greeks — The Hapless Fate of Scio (Khios) — 
Greek Fleet in Action — Turkish Liner destroyed by Fire-ship — The 
War in Western Greece (1822) — Markos Bozzaris — Greeks de- 
feated at Petta — The First Siege of Mesolonghi— Turkish Assault 
repulsed — Greeks capture Acropolis of Athens — The Morea in- 
vaded by Sultan's Forces — Greek Victories — The Brave Leader 
Niketas — Capture of Nauplia— Greek and Turkish Fleets— Kanaris 
burns Turkish Liner — Campaign of 1823 — Heroism and Death of 
Bozzaris — The Greek Mariners on Asiatic Coast — Lord Byron's 
Arrival and Death — His Opinion of Greeks — Waste of Money 
contributed for Greek Cause — Sultan Mahmoud's New Policy — 
Revives Turkish Naval Power — Aided by Mehemet Ali of Egypt — 
Turks capture Psara and Kasos — Skilful Operations — The Men of 
Hydra and Spetzas at Sea — Actions with Turkish and Egyptian 
73 



74 1bero patriots 

Vessels — Energy of Miaulis — Morea invaded by Ibrahim Pasha — 
Capture of Navarin — Greek Defeats in Morea — The Second Siege 
of Mesolonghi — Heroic Defence — Greek and Turkish Fleets in 
Conflict — Repulse of Turkish Attacks on Mesolonghi — Karaiskakis 
arrives to aid Greeks — Ibrahim Pasha joins Besiegers — Greek 
Vessels come up — Assaults repulsed at Mesolonghi — The Great 
Sortie — Part of Garrison escape — The Place taken by Turks — 
Ibrahim ravages the Morea — Turkish Siege of Athens — Karais- 
kakis' Efforts for Relief— Siege of the Acropolis — Relieving Forces 
defeated — Acropolis surrendered — End of Struggle by Greeks. 

THE regeneration of Greece is one of the most interesting 
facts of modern European history. The people did 
not, by all their efforts, achieve their own independence, but 
they did succeed, along with their own ultimate failure in the 
field, in so forcing their claims upon the attention of three 
chief Powers — Great Britain, France, and Russia — as to cause 
effective intervention in their behalf and the establishment 
of the freedom of Greeks as a new nation in the European 
State system. The struggle, on the part of the Greeks, was 
one which an impartial observer, however devoted he may 
be to the cause of freedom, can by no means contemplate 
with unmixed satisfaction. Large corrections have to be 
made, in the interest of historical accuracy, in the account 
of events, and in the estimate of Greek leaders, furnished 
by fervidly patriotic and, sooth to say, untruthful Greek 
writers. Some of the personages praised by them as un- 
blemished heroes were, in fact, self-seeking intriguers. Other 
leaders were little better than brigands on a large scale, 
impartially plundering their own countrymen and their Turkish 
foes. There was no lack of treachery to the great cause. 
There was, in many instances, a grievous display of military 
incapacity. Single-handed success of Greeks against Turks 
was, in the end, made impossible by the above causes, com- 
bined with dissension sometimes ending in armed conflict. 
We have also unhappily, in this record of heroism and 
patriotism, to separate the crimes which stained the outbreak 




KONSTANTINOS KANARIS. 



[Face page 74. 



(Breefe ©oputation 7S 

and the progress of the contest on the part of the Greeks 
from the cause which consecrated the struggle. The names 
of the men, however, which stand at the head of this chapter 
are those of real hero-patriots, ever brave and enduring, ever 
faithful and true, and, as such, worthy to rank with those 
commemorated in other parts of this work. 

After the conquest of Peloponnesus by the Turks from the 
Venetians, in 17 15, a revival of Greek influence came in the 
appointment of Greeks to many posts of importance under 
the Turkish government, and the establishment of schools 
in all parts of Greece through the aid of wealthy and 
enlightened patriots. Towards the end of the eighteenth 
century, premature armed efforts for independence were crushed 
with the usual Turkish barbarity, but a great impression was 
made by the heroic valour displayed by the Suliotes of Epirus, 
a race of mixed Hellenic (Greek) and Albanian origin. In 
a community comprising less than six hundred families, dwelling 
in hamlets nestling among the mountains, the women and boys 
fought like brave athletic men, a remnant only escaping in 
1803 to the Ionian Islands. The French Revolution had 
given a new impulse to the rising spirit of Greek nationality, 
and the admirable scholar Adamantios Corai's (or Koraes) not 
only fostered this spirit, but was the first to purify the modern 
Greek language and reduce it to fixed rules, and to bring 
home to the modern Greeks a knowledge of the ancient 
literature. At the same time, among the islands of the ^Egean 
Sea arose the nucleus of the naval force which was to play a 
prominent part in the war of liberation. 

The chief elements of the population of Greece, early in 
the nineteenth century, were the clergy, the primates, the mer- 
chants, the Klephts, the peasantry, and the large maritime class 
Strongly at variance in some points, these classes had bonds 
of union in their religion, their language, and their hatred 
of Turkish domination. Among the clergy, the highest 
dignitary was the patriarch, under whom each bishop, in his 



76 fbero patriots 

own province, was the political as well as the ecclesiastical 
guide of the Greeks. He not only regulated the affairs of 
the Church, but was, in some sort, the political governor of 
his diocese, acting as judge in all private affairs, so that Greeks, 
in disputes among themselves, never appeared in Turkish 
courts of justice. The clergy, as a body, did not regard the 
political independence of Greece as either desirable or possible, 
but looked for deliverance from Turkey to Russian interven- 
tion, and then to inclusion within the empire of the Czar. 
The primates (or Archons) were men freely elected by the 
people for the management of civil affairs. It was their duty 
to collect the tribute in various kinds, and to hand it over to 
the Turkish authorities, and they were able, in some measure, to 
protect the Greeks against arbitrary dealings of the Turkish 
civil and military powers, partly by persuading and partly by 
bribing the pashas. Like the priests, they were recognised 
by the Turks as the representatives of the people, but, like 
the priests, they were also responsible for them. The 
primates were, in fact, a sort of aristocracy of administrative 
agents and tax-gatherers. They were, in moral and political 
position, "a kind of Christian Turks." The voivode, or the 
bey of a district, purchased the taxes as a farmer-general, and 
then sublet the different branches of revenue to primates, who 
again usually relet their portions in smaller shares to the local 
magistrates of the communities within the district. In this 
way the public revenues of Greece maintained three distinct 
classes of fiscal officers at the expense of the people. The 
oppressive nature of such a system for the workers and 
creators of wealth is obvious. The most oppressive badge 
of Christian subjection was the haratch, or capitation tax, the 
collection of which involved many vexatious police regulations, 
and which was doubly hated because Mohammedans of the 
lowest class were exempted from its burden. 

The Klephts were the warlike and invincible mountaineers 
of Epirus, Thessaly, Acarnania, ^Etolia, Arcadia, and Maina 



Iklepbts an£> Jsianfcers 77 

(Laconia), men descended from refugees who were lovers of 
freedom ; maintaining a constant warfare against the Turks, 
celebrating their exploits in popular songs, and cherishing 
the hope of a day when freedom for the whole land should 
exist. There was really, however, little that was noble or 
patriotic in these men. They were, for the most part, mere 
brigands, levying contributions from the cultivators of the 
soil, plundering rich primates, and causing far more suffering 
to Greeks than to Turks. The best representatives of the 
Greek nation were the peasants of the mountain districts ; 
the muleteers, a very important class in a country destitute 
of good roads; and the numerous shepherds. The Greek 
inhabitants of the islands showed a great variety of character, 
as living under a diversity of social influences. The maritime 
population of Psara, Kasos, Kalymnos, and Patmos were 
active, intelligent, and brave. The people of Scio were 
industrious and honest. The inhabitants of Tinos and Syra 
were timid and well-behaved, formed by nature and art to 
make excellent cooks and nurses. The characteristic of the 
islanders of the Archipelago was supposed to be timidity, and 
the Turks who visited them to collect tribute, and who saw them 
scamper off to the mountains when the tax-gatherers arrived, 
nicknamed them taoshan, or hares. They little thought that 
these hares were about to turn on the greyhounds and drive 
them back into their kennel. 

A close observer, intimately acquainted with modern Greece, 
has said : "It would, no doubt, be possible to cite a more 
cruel oppression than that of the Turks towards their Christian 
subjects, but none so fitted to break men's spirit." The 
Greeks, in fact (under which name are to be understood not 
only those speaking Greek, but the Christian Albanians of 
Roumelia and the Morea, speaking a different language but 
united with the Greeks in spiritual obedience to the same 
Church), were, in the emphatic phrase of the same writer, 
Mr. Gordon, " the slaves of slaves." That is to say, not only 



78 1bero patriots 

were they liable to the universal tyranny of the despotic 
Divan at Constantinople, but " throughout the empire they 
were, in the habitual intercourse of life, subjected to vexations, 
affronts, and exactions from Mohammedans of every rank. 
Spoiled of their goods, insulted in their religion and domestic 
honour, they could rarely obtain justice. The slightest flash 
of courageous resentment brought down swift destruction on 
their heads ; and cringing humility alone enabled them to 
live in ease, or even in safety." We have reason to wonder 
that the Greeks, stooping under this iron yoke of humiliation, 
preserved sufficient nobility of mind to raise so much as their 
wishes in the direction of independence. In a condition of 
abasement, from which a simple act of religious apostasy, a 
conversion to Islam, was at once sufficient to raise them to 
honour and wealth, "and from the meanest serfs gathered 
them to the caste of oppressors," we ought not to wonder 
that some of the Greeks were mean, perfidious, and dis- 
sembling, but rather that any, in Mr. Gordon's words, " had 
courage to adhere to their religion, and to eat the bread of 
affliction." 

The man who first strove to realise the idea of delivering 
the whole Greek nation from the yoke of the Turks was 
the Thessalian Rigas Pheraeos. By his fiery war-songs he 
inspired the people with a burning love for their country and 
for freedom, and he published an atlas and other works for 
the purpose of making known to his countrymen the extent 
of territory inhabited by their forefathers, and the great 
achievements and merits of the ancient Greeks. In 1797 
he went to Italy in order to come to an understanding with 
Bonaparte concerning his plan for the deliverance of Greece. 
At Trieste he was arrested by the Austrians and delivered 
up to the Turks, who ordered him to be beheaded at Belgrade. 
Before his execution he cried, " The Greeks will soon avenge 
my death." To this patriot of modern Greece was also due 
the first impulse to the formation of the remarkable secret 



rtfeafomotrt) II 79 

association the ffetairia, or " Society of Comrades," which 
first assumed a political character in 1815. Its affairs were 
managed with such secrecy and subtilty as to escape the 
notice not only of the Turks, but even of the rigorous police 
of Moscow, the head-quarters of the society. There were 
five degrees of initiation, and a great moral effect was exer- 
cised upon the Greek mind by the mystery which surrounded 
all the proceedings. Among the watchwords of the society 
were " London " and " Moscow," and an organised agency 
of "apostles" compassed land and sea as pioneers for the 
coming crusade. 

By 1820, Greece was thoroughly inoculated with the spirit 
of revolution, and circumstances made it clear that the out- 
break of insurrection could not long be delayed. In that 
year, the Ottoman empire seemed to be on the eve of dissolu- 
tion. In the south-west, the famous Ali Pasha was in open 
rebellion at the head of a warlike nation, and with a reason- 
able hope of establishing an independent throne in Albania. 
It was fortunate for the Turks that they had, at this juncture, 
a ruler of exceptional ability, energy, and resolution. Sultan 
Mahmoud II. ascended the throne in the year 1808, in his 
twenty-fifth year, after a series of revolutions at Constantinople, 
caused by the attempts of his cousin, Sultan Selim III., to 
reform the public administration and to introduce military 
discipline in the corps of janissaries. Mahmoud combined 
iron firmness of character with the prudence which caused 
him to abstain from premature attempts to reform the abuses 
that would, if they remained unreformed, inevitably bring, 
at no distant day, the dissolution of the Ottoman empire. 
He was a man of the sternest severity in rule, and his main 
object was to centralise all power in his own hands. After a 
long struggle, Ali Pasha was subdued and slain, and Mahmoud 
was free to deal with the Greek rising soon after its inception. 

The first blows against tyranny were struck in Wallachia 
and Moldavia, and ended in total failure. An incapable 



8o 1beto patriots 

personage, Prince Alexander Ypsilanti (or Hypsilantes), repre- 
senting the Hetairia, crossed the Pruth, with a few followers, 
on March 6, 1821. He was foolishly hoping to gain the rule 
of the two principalities, and, perhaps, ultimately the throne 
of Greece, through Russian aid. His delays and military 
incapacity rendered success impossible. A number of Turks 
of every rank — merchants, soldiers, and sailors — were sur- 
prised and murdered in cold blood at Galatz, and this 
atrocity was followed by a similar crime at Yassi, perpetrated 
on fifty Turkish soldiers and on some Turkish merchants, 
who had all received a promise of safety. The Turkish 
people rushed to arms, and the utter defeat of the revolu- 
tionary forces included the destruction of a regiment of 
volunteers called the " Sacred Battalion," composed of about 
five hundred young men of the higher and middle ranks, full 
of enthusiasm for the cause of freedom. Hypsilantes saved 
himself by an ignominious flight to Austrian territory. 

The first insurrectional movements in southern Greece 
occurred at the end of March 182 1. At that time, a 
Mussulman population exceeding twenty thousand was living 
dispersed in Greece, employed in agriculture. Before two 
months had elapsed, the greater part of these people had been 
slain — murdered without mercy or remorse, men, women, and 
children — by the Greek insurgents. This bare, brutal state- 
ment shows the character impressed on the struggle, from 
the first, by the Greek aspirers to freedom, and proves that 
Turkish cruelties were the vengeance wrought by men who 
had been grievously provoked thereto. In Achaia, the 
struggle began, on March 25, with the slaying of three 
couriers carrying letters to a Turkish authority. This was 
followed by the murder of eight haratch collectors, Albanian 
Mussulmans, and by other attacks, and by April 2 the out- 
break was general throughout the Morea. All communication 
by the great roads was cut off, and many Turks were slain in 
different places. On April 3 about three hundred Mussulmans, 



Marfare in fl&orea 81 

men, women, and children, surrendered to the Greeks at the town 
of Kalavryta, on a promise of security. Within a short time, 
most of the men were murdered, and the women and children 
were dispersed as slaves or as domestic servants in the houses 
of Greeks. 

About the same time, more decisive operations occurred 
in Messenia, under the command of Petrobey of Maina 
(Petros Mavromichales), a man of great personal influence, 
vain, bold, ambitious, restless, and self-indulgent, of frank 
and joyous disposition, and prompt to form courageous re- 
solutions, but not of much political or military ability. He 
was aided by Theodore Kolokotrones, a noted Klepht^ then 
fifty years of age, of violent passions, athletic frame, stentorian 
voice, and bold demeanour ; ferocious, cunning, avaricious, 
selfish in his patriotism, persuasive in popular addresses, averse 
to order and law — a man of clear intellect and hard heart, 
who failed to render to his country the service which some of 
his qualities gave reason to expect. With them were joined 
leaders named Niketas and Anagnosturas, the latter being, like 
Kolokotrones, a famous chief of Klephts. It was on April 3 
that the town of Kalamata was besieged by two thousand 
Greeks under these leaders, and on the following day the 
place capitulated on a solemn promise of safety for life. The 
prisoners were dispersed among their captors as slaves, and 
within a few months the men had all been killed. On April 5, 
a solemn service of the Greek Church was performed, on the 
banks of the torrent that flows by Kalamata, as a thanksgiving 
for the success of the Greek arms. Twenty-four priests 
officiated, amid a scene of the deepest and most enthusiastic 
feeling, in presence of five thousand armed men, while rude 
warriors and ruthless brigands shed tears of joy over the open- 
ing of a new era in Greek history. Two days later, Petrobey, 
as commander of the first Greek army in the field, issued a 
proclamation, addressed to all Christian nations, declaring that 
the Greeks were resolved to throw off the Ottoman yoke, and 

6 



82 ibero patriots 

soliciting aid for their cause. The war of independence was 
thus fully started on its eventful course. 

By this time, the Mussulmans of Laconia, estimated at 
fifteen thousand, were thoroughly alarmed, and prepared for 
escape to the strong towns of Monemvasia and Tripolitza; 
but a large number, certainly more than half, were either 
slain on the road or surprised before they could quit their 
dwellings. At Patras, on the north-west coast of the Morea, 
a Greek movement failed through the incapacity and dissen- 
sion of the leaders, and the citadel of the town was held 
by the Turks throughout the war. There were alternate 
defeats and successes in April, but the Greeks, before the 
end of the month, had burned down the country houses of 
the wealthy Turks in the Morea, plundered and destroyed 
about three thousand farmhouses and other dwellings, and 
slain in cold blood over ten thousand of the hated Mussul- 
mans. These hateful cruelties, the work of slaves rending 
their bonds, and of religious fanatics, have been carefully 
omitted from the records of most of the Greek historians. 
They were chiefly due to the cowardly and vindictive 
suggestions of civil members of the Hetairia, men devoid of 
courage to lead their countrymen to battle, and making it 
their policy to render peace impossible by the indiscriminate 
slaughter of their foes at the outset of the struggle. 

On April n Kolokotrones, heading an untrained force 
of six thousand young peasants, and investing the town of 
Karitena, was routed by a body of five hundred Turkish 
cavalry from Tripolitza, the central fortress of the Morea. 
He conceived therefrom, like other military leaders, a very un- 
just and impolitic contempt for the courage of the peasantry. 
These tillers of the soil were, in fact, the backbone of Greek 
warfare, through their perseverance and self-devotion, during 
the six-years' struggle, prolonging their resistance when others 
shrank away, and renewing the contest, after every defeat, 
with indomitable energy. 



IRevolt ot Htbens 83 

To the north of the Morea, the Albanian peasantry of 
Megaris, Attica, and Bceotia took up arms against the Turks 
early in April. The town of Salona (Amphissa) was taken 
by the insurgents, and many Turks who surrendered on 
promise of their lives were cruelly slain. The same work 
was done in many quarters. The whole Christian population 
of eastern Greece, Albanian and Greek, was up in arms, and 
Turks were surprised and butchered in hundreds of villages 
from Cape Sunium to the valley of the Spercheios, amidst 
circumstances of peculiar atrocity. No " orthodox Christian " 
would demean himself so far as to dig a grave for the carcass 
of an infidel, and the bodies of the slain, of all ages and both 
sexes, were thrown into some outhouse, which was set on fire. 

And what of Athens, that place of ancient fame, amidst 
this turmoil — Athens, " the eye of Greece, mother of arts 
And eloquence, native to famous wits ? " In fallen Greece, 
Athens had become a town of low importance. It was a 
wretched village of a few hundred houses, one-half the people 
being of Albanian race. The Christian and Mussulman in- 
habitants were an impoverished community, consisting of 
torpid landowners and lazy petty traders. Its old renown 
and its remains of former splendour brought many travellers. 
The Mussulmans formed about one-fifth of the population, 
and were unwarlike and inoffensive. The Greeks were of 
like character. The garrison was composed of the sixty 
Mussulman Albanians of the voivodis guard. When the 
first reports of a general insurrection reached the little town, 
the Mohammedans transported their families and their valu- 
able movables into the Acropolis, where they filled with 
water the empty cisterns. On April 23 the Turks seized 
eleven of the principal Christians as hostages, and this act 
was followed by a close blockade of the Acropolis. The 
people there suffered severely from hunger and thirst as the 
hot weather came on, but they held out obstinately until their 
relief in August by a Turkish force. 



8 4 Ibero ©attiots 

The real military strength of Greece lay in the population 
of ^Etolia and of Pindus, but it was some time before the 
" apostles " of the Hetairia could induce the leaders to rise 
against the Sultan. Mesolonghi was the first place in western 
Greece to join the revolution. On June i the people rose, 
and arrested and soon murdered the Mussulmans, the women 
and children being, as usual, sold as slaves among the 
wealthier Greeks. Early in June, Vrachori, the most impor- 
tant town in western Greece, in a fertile district on the 
highroad between Janina and Lepanto, containing five 
hundred Mussulman families, was attacked and forced to 
surrender from famine. The promise of safety on surrender 
was, as usual, violated by the Greeks, and the Turks, with 
about two hundred Jews, were massacred. In about three 
months from the first rising, the Christians had become 
masters of the whole of Greece to the south of Thermopylae 
on the east and Actium on the west, with the exception of the 
fortresses, all of which were blockaded. These places were, 
in the Morea — Tripolitza, Nauplia, Corinth, Patras, Navarin, 
Modon, Coron, and Monemvasia. In continental Greece, 
the Sultan's forces held Athens, Zeituni, Lepanto, the castle 
of Roumelia, and Vonitza. In Eubcea, the Turkish strong- 
holds were Kanystos and Negropont. We turn now to the 
naval aspect of the stirring contest. 

The greater part of the soldiers who fought against the 
Sultan were Greeks, but two-thirds of the Greek navy was 
composed of Albanian ships and Albanian sailors. In the 
eighteenth century, colonies of Albanian seamen settled at 
Hydra and Spetzas, and of Greek seamen at Psara and 
Kasos, which were all then barren islands. The new settle- 
ments were formed under the protection of a special law 
which exempted those islands from the general fiscal admini- 
stration. The new-comers built ships and formed self-governing 
communities. In this manner a large commercial navy had 
grown up under the Ottoman flag, and when the revolution 



psara an£> Ifosfcra 85 

broke out these four islands were populous and flourishing. 
The people of these lightly taxed territories, enjoying " home- 
rule," and subject to fewer restrictions on personal liberty 
and on commercial enterprise than those of most Christian 
countries, had assuredly no personal reasons for rebelling 
against the Sultan. The local magistrates were elected by 
the householders, the taxes were collected by Christians, and 
there were no resident Mussulmans. Revolution was, how- 
ever, in the air, and the advance of civilisation had inspired 
them with a longing for political independence. The island 
of Psara, lying off the north-west coast of Khios (or Scio), 
and thus in the very centre of the Archipelago, was enabled, 
from its geographical position, to watch the lines of sea-trade 
to and from the chief commercial cities of the Turkish 
empire. The population numbered about six thousand ; the 
seamen were unwearied in activity, and the island had the 
honour of giving birth to one of the chosen heroes of this 
narrative, the illustrious Konstantinos Kanaris. The govern- 
ment was thoroughly democratic. Every house-owner, every 
man sharing the risks of a trading voyage or supporting a 
family, though he might be only a common sailor, could 
attend the annual assembly of the people, and vote at the 
election of forty councillors. Hydra, off the eastern coast 
of the Morea, had over thrice the population of Psara, and 
the government was in the hands of rich oligarchs, and 
administered by twelve primates. The trading trips of all 
these islanders were conducted on partnership principles. 
The capitalist who provided the cargo, the owner of the 
vessel, the captain, and the sailors, were all sharers in the 
success of each voyage, according to a settled rate. Every- 
body was thus interested in the quickness and safety of the 
run, and the Albanian and Greek ships had the largest gains 
of all that sailed the Mediterranean. This system had a bad 
effect upon naval discipline during the war with the Turks. 
The degree of equality enjoyed, and the habit of consulting 



86 Ibero patriots 

the men on board, in the commercial voyages, had rendered it 
impossible for the captain of a man-of-war to enforce prompt 
obedience to orders. The consequence was that the naval 
achievements of the Greeks, brilliant as they were in some 
instances, fell far short of what might have been performed 
with due discipline among the captains, petty officers, and 
crews. 

The flag of Greek independence was hoisted first at the 
island of Spetzas (or Spezzia), to the west of Hydra. This 
event occurred on April 7, 1821, and eight brigs were at 
once equipped for cruising off the coast of the Morea. The 
first exploit of this earliest contingent of the new Greek navy 
was the surprise of a Turkish corvette of twenty-six guns 
and a brig of sixteen guns, both greatly under-manned, lying 
at the island of Milo. The success was disgraced by atrocious 
cruelty. Many of the Turkish crews were murdered in cold 
blood at Spetzas, and others were tortured with the utmost 
barbarity. Psara quickly joined the revolutionary cause, and 
her cruisers became the terror of all the Mussulman maritime 
population. A Turkish expedition from Asia Minor to the 
Morea was promptly frustrated by the destruction of a large 
transport laden with military stores, and by the capture of 
vessels conveying troops and provisions. The whole western 
coast of Asia Minor, from Tenedos to Rhodes, was raided by 
the Psarian schooners, and the attempts of the Turks to send 
supplies to their soldiers in Greece were paralysed. At 
oligarchic Hydra, the wishes of the people for revolution were 
opposed by the primates ; but the matter was soon settled by 
insurrection, and on April 28 the independence of the island 
was proclaimed. Naval operations were concerted in common 
with Psara and Spetzas; but the first cruise of the Greek 
navy, apart from the useful operations above described, was 
marked, in consequence of ill-discipline among the crews, 
by little else than rapine, which sometimes included the 
plunder of neutral vessels, and by infamous cruelty to captured 



Greeft jfleet m Bction 87 

Turks. Early in May, Samos joined the patriotic cause, and 
her people carrried on a vigorous war in descents on the coast 
of Asia Minor. 

We come now to the first meeting of the rival fleets. A 
Turkish squadron left the Dardanelles on June 3, consisting 
of two line-of-battle ships, three frigates, and three sloops 
of war, all in bad condition and very ill-manned. The Greek 
fleet was at sea on its second cruise. One division, under 
Andreas Miaulis, destined to high renown in the annals 
of the revolutionary war, consisted of twelve brigs, and sailed 
to blockade Patras and to watch the Turkish ships on the 
coast of Epirus. The chief division, of thirty-seven sail, was 
under Tombazes, a Hydriot primate of some nautical science, 
a worthy and honourable man, but deficient in decision and 
promptitude for warlike affairs. His ships were cruising in 
the Archipelago, on the look-out for the enemy's fleet. On 
June 5 the Greeks fell in with one of the Turkish line-of- 
battle ships off the north of Khios. She fled for safety to 
the roads of Erissos, on the coast of Mitylene, and the 
Greeks, after an ineffectual cannonade, resolved on the use 
of fire-ships. One of the Psarian vessels was prepared, but 
it was badly manoeuvred and uselessly burned. On June 8 
the Turkish vessel was attacked by a fire-ship which arrived 
from Psara ; but this also failed from the timidity of the men 
on board, who fired the train of powder too soon. A third 
vessel, prepared in the fleet off Khios, commanded by a 
Psarian named Pappanikolo, and manned by eighteen sailors, 
had better fortune. The brave and skilful captain, well 
backed by his crew, ran his vessel under the bows of the 
Turk, and did not light the train until she was firmly fixed. 
He then jumped into his boat and rowed away. The flames 
mounted instantly into the sails of the fire-ship, the canvas 
and ropes being saturated with turpentine, and the fire was 
driven by the wind over the bows of the Turkish vessel, whose 
hull was soon wrapped in flame. No effort could be made 



ss 1bero patriots 

to save the ship. The cable was cut, and two launches 
full of men rowed away. Many of the crew jumped over- 
board and swam ashore. Between three and four hundred 
perished. The explosion of the magazine left her a complete 
wreck. " This conflagration," in Finlay's words, " was the 
naval beacon of Greek liberty." The remaining ships of the 
Turkish squadron, terrified by this disaster, fled to the 
Dardanelles, and Tombazes, lacking in energy and resolution, 
lost an excellent chance of striking a heavy blow, and came 
to an anchor at Moschonnesia, near the town of Kydonies, 
a commercial place of great wealth, supporting within itself, 
or in the adjoining villages, a Greek population of thirty 
thousand. The people, fearing a Turkish attack, applied to 
Tombazes for help, and the embarkation of the inhabitants 
began on June 15. A fight occurred, and amid a scene of 
fearful confusion about four thousand persons escaped in the 
launches of the Greek ships. About a thousand more were 
safely brought off on the following day, but the prosperous 
town was plundered and burnt by the Turks, and many 
thousands of Greeks were murdered or enslaved. 

The cruelty of the Greeks on the outbreak of the contest 
had naturally provoked cruel retaliation. When the news 
of the massacres in the Morea reached Constantinople, the 
Sultan, who had already caused the execution of about twenty 
members of the Hetairia, on charges of complicity in the 
rebellion, put to death some official and other Greeks of 
good position. On Easter Sunday, April 22, the Patriarch 
Gregorios was hanged, as an accessory to the plot of the 
Hetairia^ and three bishops suffered with him. The body 
of the patriarch, after public exposure for three days, was 
delivered to the Jews of Constantinople to be dragged through 
the streets and cast into the sea. This proceeding was a 
regular part of Turkish criminal justice, inflicted alike on 
Christians and Mussulmans. The execution of Gregorios 
aroused horror among all members of the Greek Church. 



Oreeft Success s 9 

The body was rescued from the water by night, conveyed 
to Odessa, and interred with much pomp as that of a martyr. 
Other executions of bishops followed in various places. 
Scenes of pillage and murder were enacted at most of the 
chief cities, islands, and districts of the empire where there was 
a considerable Greek population — at Constantinople, Saloniki, 
and Smyrna ; in Cos, Rhodes, Cyprus, and Crete. According 
to some authorities, the number of Greeks msssacred and 
enslaved in various quarters equalled that of the Mussulmans 
who became victims to the fury of their Christian foes. 

During the year 182 1 Sultan Mahmoud succeeded in sup- 
pressing the revolutionary movement in most of the provinces 
of European Turkey beyond the limits of the kingdom of 
Greece as it was ultimately established. In all these districts 
the Greeks were defeated, compelled to lay down their arms, 
and induced to resume their ordinary occupations. During 
the whole period of the revolutionary war they remained 
peaceful subjects of the Sultan, and when peace came and 
they were permitted to emigrate, if they chose, to liberated 
Greece, they remained where they were. This fact refutes 
the assertion of Greek historians who declare that cruelty 
and oppression were the prominent features of Turkish govern- 
ment under Sultan Mahmoud. 

It has been already shown that the Turkish fortresses were 
blockaded by the Christian insurgents. Famine and sickness 
were soon making terrible ravages among the Mohammedans 
crowded together without due preparation and precaution for 
siege. The first decisive victory of the Greeks was gained 
at Valtetzi, one of the blockading positions held by them to 
watch Tripolitza, about eight miles distant from the city. 
The hills at Valtetzi overlook the great plain of Arcadia, 
and Achmet Bey, a Turkish commander who had recently 
reached the fortress with fifteen hundred infantry and eight 
hundred cavalry, resolved to try to force the position and 
open up communications with Messenia. On May 24, 1821, 



go 1bero patriots 

he made a vigorous attack ; but his Albanian infantry were 
severely repulsed by the Greek marksmen firing from the 
cover of stone walls. The Turks were at last forced to retreat 
on Tripolitza, with the loss of four hundred men killed and 
all their baggage. The victors had one hundred and fifty 
men slain. This success destroyed the military reputation 
of the Turks in the Morea. On August 5, after a blockade 
of four months, the Turks surrendered the fortress of Monem- 
vasia. A fortnight later came the capitulation of Navarin, 
on the south-west coast of the Morea, an event disgraced, 
for the Greeks, by the plunder and massacre of the Turks. 
The Greeks behaved with atrocious cruelty, deliberately shoot- 
ing women, dashing infants against the rocks, and drowning 
many young children in the sea. The Greek leaders quarrelled 
over the booty, and the government and the fighting men 
were cheated of their shares of plunder. On October 5 
Tripolitza was taken by escalade, and the capture of the 
place was followed by a disgraceful scene of pillage and 
murder. The number of Mussulmans slaughtered was esti- 
mated, by a witness friendly to the Greek cause, General 
Gordon, at eight thousand. The conquest of the capital 
of the Morea should have brought great advantage to the 
revolutionary cause, but all good effect was neutralised by 
the confusion which prevailed in Greek civil and military 
affairs. Kolokotrones had been foremost in cheating the 
troops at Tripolitza, and most of the other leaders had, by 
similar conduct, forfeited the confidence of their men. From 
this time forward anarchy prevailed among the revolutionists, 
and the successes obtained were due to the unfaltering efforts 
of the peasantry, guided by a minority of honest men and 
sincere patriots. 

During the later summer of 1821, when the Albanian 
islanders had allowed their ships to return to Hydra and 
Spetzas, a Turkish admiral, Kara Ali, had some success. 
Late in August he sailed from the Dardanelles with three 



Gurfes at Scio 9* 

line-of-battle ships, five frigates, and about twenty corvettes 
and brigs. Egyptian and Algerine squadrons joined him. 
After throwing supplies of provisions and ammunition into 
the fortresses of Coron and Modon, on the south-west coast 
of the Morea, which saved them from falling into the hands 
of the Greeks, he reached Patras, on the north-west coast, 
about the middle of September. Early in October the 
Egyptian squadron attacked Galaxidhi, on the north coast of 
the Gulf of Lepanto. The inhabitants were the chief ship- 
owners of western Greece, and almost their whole navy 
— sixty vessels including forty brigs and schooners — was 
then in port. Many vessels were burned, the town was 
plundered, and thirty-four vessels were carried to Constanti- 
nople as prizes. 

The fortress of Corinth capitulated on January 22, 1822, 
the Greeks displaying their usual faithlessness in plundering 
and murdering Turks who had surrendered on terms. The 
effect of this conduct was that the Mussulmans in their re- 
maining Morean fortresses — Coron, Modon, Nauplia, and 
Patras — defended themselves with desperation, and began to 
show unwonted prudence and energy in obtaining supplies. 
We must pass over many minor events and record the unhappy 
fate of Khios (Scio), a calamity which aroused the sympathy 
and compassion of the whole civilised world. The industrious, 
unwarlike inhabitants were mildly governed and averse to 
join the revolution. By insurrection against the Sultan they 
had nothing to gain and everything to lose. When Tombazes, 
during the first cruise of the Greek fleet, appeared off the 
island, the people refused to throw off the Turkish yoke and 
avenge the " martyrdom " of the patriarch Gregorios. The 
alarm of the Sultan had been, however, aroused. The 
Christians of Khios were disarmed ; the Turkish garrison 
in the citadel was strengthened ; the archbishop and seventy 
of the principal Greeks were kept there as hostages for the 
tranquillity of the island. The wealth of the Khiots had 



92 1bero patriots 

excited the cupidity of many of the ruling men in Greece, and 
the conquest of the island was undertaken by adventurers. 

A man named Lykourgos, on March 22, 1822, landed there 
with about two thousand five hundred men. They behaved 
more like banditti than national troops. The town of Khios 
was entered, the custom-house burned, and two mosques 
destroyed. The siege of the citadel was begun in form, but 
little progress was made from lack of engineering skill and 
energy. Lykourgos was joined by large numbers of peasants 
from the villages in the hills ; but he knew not how to employ 
his forces, and his camp was a scene of utter disorder. The 
Greek government sent a few heavy guns and some artillery- 
men, but there was no fleet to prevent Turkish troops from 
crossing over from the coast of Asia Minor. Many of the 
wealthy Khiots were plundered by their invading country- 
men. The Turkish fleet put to sea as soon as the news 
reached Constantinople, and large bodies of troops were 
gathered on the opposite coast. The admiral, Kara Ali, 
arrived off the island on April 11, and landed seven thousand 
men to the south of the city of Khios. The Greeks at once 
fled from their entrenchments, and the town was in Turkish 
hands. Lykourgos embarked with his followers in some 
Psarian vessels, and the islanders were left to the fury of the 
exasperated Turks. All were treated as rebels, and rendered 
responsible for the evil deeds of the Greek invaders. General 
slaughter of men and wide devastation followed, in spite of 
the efforts of Kara Ali, who was anxious to preserve as many 
of the peasantry as possible, with a view to the Sultan's revenue 
in taxation. Thousands of women and children were carried 
off and sold as slaves. The Greek people strongly and justly 
accused their government of incapacity and neglect in not 
sending the fleet to oppose the Turkish squadron and to 
prevent the landing of troops on the island. 

It was only on May 10, when the fate of Khios was settled, 
that the Greek fleet put to sea, It consisted of fifty-six sail, 



Bnfcreas jflDiaulte 93 

The squadron of each of the naval islands had its own admiral, 
but the chief command over the whole fleet was, by common 
consent, given to Andreas Miaulis, already named in these 
pages. This native of Hydra, the greatest naval commander 
of Greece, described as "an iron man who never smiled and 
never wept," had given proofs of prudent firmness and sound 
sense, and won for himself universal respect by these qualities, 
combined with maritime experience and skill. There was very 
little order, and no discipline, in the force under his command, 
and the achievements of Miaulis were necessarily limited by 
these conditions. On May 31, the admiral arrived off the 
north channel at Khios, and an indecisive action between 
the two squadrons, renewed at intervals during three days, 
took place at the entrance to the Gulf of Smyrna. The 
Greeks then returned to Psara, and the Turks to their 
anchorage at the town of Khios. 

On June 18, a day already famous in European history, 
as the darkness of night came on, the whole Turkish fleet 
was illuminated in celebration of the festival of Bairam, 
the second feast of that name in the year, instituted to 
commemorate the offering up of Isaac by Abraham. A 
number of the chief officers of the fleet were assembled on 
board the admiral's ship. Two Greek vessels, which had 
been hugging the land all day as if baffled by the wind in 
striving to enter the Gulf of Smyrna, changed their course at 
dusk, and bore down into the midst of the Turkish fleet. One 
steered for the eighty-gun ship of the admiral, the other for 
the seventy-four, both vessels being made conspicuous amid 
the gloom by the variegated lamps on their masts and yards. 
The Greek craft were fire-ships, and one was commanded by 
Konstantinos Kanaris, a chief hero of the Greek revolutionary 
war. Directing his ship with his own cool courage and skill, 
he ran her bowsprit into an open port of the Turkish admiral's 
vessel, and fixed his deadly instrument of naval warfare along- 
side, as near the bows as possible, so as to bring the flames 



94 t)ero patriots 

to windward of the foe. He then lighted the powder-train 
with his own hand, stepped into his boat, where all the men 
were ready at their oars, and pushed off as the flames rose 
from the deck. The sails and cordage, steeped in turpentine 
and pitch, at once blazed up, and the Turkish crews were too 
much amazed at the sudden conflagration to pay any heed to 
the solitary boat rowing swiftly into the shade. The flames, 
driven by the wind, rushed into the open ports of the upper 
and lower decks of the great Turkish liner, and filled her with 
a furnace of fire. The scene was terrible. A number of tents 
piled on the lower deck took fire so quickly, and the flame 
rushed so furiously through the hatches, that all communica- 
tion between different parts of the ship was cut off. No effort 
could be made to stay the flames or to scuttle the vessel, and 
those on board could only save their lives by jumping into 
the sea. The few boats alongside, or which could be lowered, 
were sunk by the crowds that rushed into them. The crews 
of the nearest ships were mostly busied in hauling off their 
vessels, and the progress of the flames on the doomed man-of- 
war was so rapid that boats could rarely venture to approach 
her. The ship was crowded with Greek prisoners, and their 
shrieks filled all who heard them with pity and horror. The 
admiral, Kara Ali, jumped into one of the boats brought 
alongside, but before he could leave the side of the ship he 
was struck by one of her falling spars and carried dying to the 
shore. The other Greek fire-ship failed in her purpose. In- 
stead of holding fast to her intended victim, she drifted to 
leeward and burned away harmlessly to the water's edge. 
The new Turkish commander, after this catastrophe, sailed 
away for the Dardanelles. 

The massacres of Khios, the horrible destruction of a large 
part of the best specimens of modern Greeks, excited indigna- 
tion in all Christian countries. Statesmen began to think of 
intervention, and all liberal men and sincere Christians longed 
for the independence of Greece. Committees were formed to 



War in Western (Breece 95 

aid the arms of the revolutionists, and subscriptions were made 
for the suffering Khiots. 

We turn next to the war in western Greece, for the prosecu- 
tion of which the Sultan, in the spring of 1822, had gathered 
a powerful army, mostly composed of Albanians, under the 
command of Omar Vrioni. The Greek force was under the 
incapable Mavrocordatos. He had with him a body of about 
one hundred foreign officers, serving as a corps of private 
soldiers called the " Philhellenes," or lovers of Greece. The 
first Greek regiment, six hundred strong, under Colonel 
Tarella, was in the army, with a body of Ionian volunteers, 
and a band of Suliotes under another of our selected hero- 
patriots, Markos Bozzaris (Botsares). Born about 1788 at 
Suli, in the mountains of Epirus, this brave man passed his 
youth in conflict for his native land, and was one of the few 
who, in 1803, as already recorded, escaped to the Ionian Isles 
after the desperate conflict with Ali Pasha. The outbreak of 
the revolution brought him to Epirus with about eight hundred 
Suliot refugees. At Mesolonghi the army was joined by a 
few hundred men from the Morea. Mavrocordatos marched 
out with about two thousand men and two light guns, and 
joined at Petta, on the left bank of the river Arta, a chieftain 
named Gogos, commanding about a thousand men. A Turkish 
cavalry attack was brilliantly repulsed, and then a decisive 
action followed at Petta. The Turks were in great force at 
Arta, and Petta lies only about two miles from the bridge over 
the river flowing under the walls of that city. The commander- 
in-chief, Mavrocordatos, was at his head-quarters, fifteen miles 
away, and left the command to a German, General Normann, 
his chief of the staff. 

The occupation of Petta by the Greeks was most in- 
judicious. A victory there could bring no advantage; a 
defeat was destruction. The Turks had six hundred excel- 
lent cavalry to cover their retirement in case of need, and 
guns to defend the bridge. There was treachery in the Greek 



9 6 1bero patriots 

camp. Gogos was jealous of the " Philhellenes," and a 
chieftain named Geneas Kolokotrones, a son of the old Klepht, 
deserted on the eve of battle. The Turkish commander in 
Arta was Reshid Pasha, an able and energetic man destined to 
have much success against the Greeks. On July 16, 1822, he 
marched out of Arta at the head of five thousand foot and six 
hundred horse to attack his enemy, who were not above three 
thousand strong. General Normann was in the first line with 
the corps of Philhellenes, the Greek regiment, and the Ionian 
volunteers. The irregulars occupied a ridge of hills rising 
behind Petta, of which Gogos held the key by occupying an 
elevation on the extreme right. The first Turkish assaults, 
extending over about two hours in a desultory way, were 
repulsed. Reshid Pasha, unseen by Normann, was at this time 
sending a force to turn the Greek position from the north, and 
the treacherous Gogos, viewing the movement from his elevated 
post, did not stir. When the Turks attacked the Greek rear, 
exposing their flank to Gogos, his men fled, and all the Greek 
irregulars followed their example. Reshid Pasha then made a 
strong attack on the Greek regulars in front, leading his cavalry 
in person. The two Greek field-pieces were taken ; the 
Philhellenes were surrounded and almost all shot down. The 
Greek regiment under Tarella and the Ionian volunteers were 
both broken by infantry fire and cavalry charges, and left half 
of their men dead on the ground. Four hundred of the best 
soldiers of Greece perished on this disastrous day. The 
defeat at Petta was a severe blow to the cause of order in the 
Greek revolution. Henceforth no confidence was felt by the 
people in the central government, and amid a scene of anarchy 
the contest against the Turks was maintained by irregular 
forces devoid of art and science in military operations. We 
turn next to the siege of Mesolonghi by the Turks under the 
command of Omar Vrioni, who had ten thousand men at his 
disposal. 

The siege of this important place, lying on the south-west 



jfirst Sieae of flfoesolongbi 97 

coast of continental Greece, just outside the entrance to the 
bay of Patras, was begun on November 6, 1822. The Greeks 
had now been deserted by Gogos and other traitors, but the 
people — the peasantry and the population of the towns — re- 
mained true to the revolutionary cause. The town was protected 
only by a low mud wall, with a ditch little more than six feet 
deep and about sixteen feet wide. The ramparts mounted only 
fourteen guns. The flanking defences were very imperfect, and 
the regular garrison was composed of only six hundred men. 
The guns in the batteries were worked by the boatmen, and 
the townsmen laboured to complete the line of fortifications. 
To all appearance, the ditch might, on the arrival of the 
Turkish forces, have been filled up with fascines, and the place 
have been easily carried by storm. Mesolonghi, however, 
the place which seemed a ready prey for her foes, was destined 
to win undying fame among the besieged towns of history 
by her prolonged, brave, and obstinate defence. Mavro- 
cordatos had arrived on the scene, attended by some ex- 
perienced and skilful officers who gave much useful aid to 
the defenders. On November 20, seven Hydriot brigs of war 
compelled the Turkish blockading squadron to withdraw to 
Patras, and three days later the little garrison of Mesolonghi 
was reinforced by a thousand men from the Morea under 
Petrobey and other leaders. The Turkish commander, Omar 
Vrioni, had been negotiating, under the advice of the 
treacherous Greeks in his camp, for a surrender of the town. 
The defenders of the place pretended to consider his overtures, 
and then, on the arrival of the men from the Morea, sent him 
a message that, if he wished to become master of Mesolonghi, 
he had better come and take it. The garrison of the place 
had been, by this time, increased to two thousand five hundred 
men, well supplied with ammunition from Leghorn. 

The Turkish army did not now exceed eight thousand men, 
harassed in the rear by the Greeks of yEtolia and Acarnania, 
who were busy in attacking the enemy's convoys. Provisions 

7 



98 1bero patriots 

and military stores were growing scarce in the camp, and 
Omar Vrioni resolved on an assault. This event took place 
at the earliest dawn of the Greek Christmas Day, January 6, 
1823. The storming columns hoped to surprise the Christians 
at their church services ; but the defenders were quite prepared, 
having received notice from a Greek fisherman in the service 
of the Turkish governor of the province. Two thousand two 
hundred well-armed men were posted either under cover on 
the ramparts, or as a reserve in the nearest houses. The 
storming parties of eight hundred Albanian volunteers attacked 
the place at two points. One division strove to scale the wall 
on the eastern flank ; another sought to enter the town by 
wading through the shallow lagoon round the eastern extremity 
of the wall. The assault was masked by heavy volleys of 
musketry along the whole of the Turkish lines. The besieged 
reserved their fire until the columns were within pistol-range, 
and then poured in a deadly fusillade. The effect was decisive. 
Those who intended a surprise were themselves confounded ; 
they broke and fled in utter rout. Desultory and vain 
attempts to renew the assault were made, and a vast amount 
of ammunition was expended on both sides, but the matter 
ended in the loss of some hundreds of men by the Turks, while 
the Greeks had only four men slain. Six days later, Omar 
Vrioni broke up his camp and retired, leaving to the enemy 
ten guns, four mortars, and a small amount of shot and empty 
shells. 

The surrender of the Acropolis at Athens was an event of 
great moral and military importance for the Greek cause, 
attracting the attention of the whole civilised world, and 
giving the revolutionists possession of a fortress on the flank 
of the Turks who might invade the Peloponnesus (Morea). 
We have seen that Omar Vrioni had relieved the place in the 
autumn of 1821. Before quitting Attica, he supplied the 
garrison with provisions and military stores ; but his aid was 
rendered ultimately useless through the neglect of the 



ZTurfctefo 3w>asion of /l&orea 99 

besieged as regarded a supply of water. The cisterns were 
left uncleansed during the winter ; the only good well was 
imperfectly defended. The season proved extremely dry. 
The Greeks secured possession of the well, and capitulation 
followed as an absolute necessity. The surrender, which took 
place on June 21, 1822, was attended by the grossest breach 
of faith on the part of the Greeks. The terms bound the 
victors to convey the Turks to Asia Minor in neutral ships, 
and to leave them one-half of their money and jewels, with a 
certain portion of their other movables. The bishop of 
Athens, a man of high character, compelled all the Greek 
civil and military authorities to swear on the sacrament of the 
Greek Church to observe strictly the articles of capitulation. 
The Mussulmans in the Acropolis numbered one thousand 
one hundred and fifty, of whom only a hundred and eighty 
were men capable of bearing arms. Three days after the 
surrender the Greeks began to murder the prisoners, in spite 
of all the efforts of the Austrian and French consuls. News 
had reached Athens that the Ottoman forces had seized the 
pass of Thermopylae, and in their rage the Greeks put to 
death four hundred men, women, and children among the 
captives. The rest were saved by the intervention of the 
foreign consuls, and by the arrival of two French men-of-war 
in the Piraeus. 

Sultan Mahmoud forthwith sent to the Morea an invading 
army of twenty thousand men under the command of Dramali. 
This large force included eight thousand cavalry, and since 
the day when AH Kumourgi crossed the Spercheios to re- 
conquer the Peloponnesus from the Venetians in 1715, no 
such display of military pomp had been seen in Greece. The 
Greek priest who commanded in the Acrocorinth, the citadel 
of Corinth, abandoned that impregnable and well-provisioned 
fortress after murdering the Turkish prisoners in his hands, 
and the city, on July 17, was occupied by Dramali. The 
Turkish commander was rash and devoid of experience in 



ioo 1&ero patriots 

Greek warfare, and advanced as if to sweep the Morea of 
his foes without any regular plan of campaign. On July 24 
he fixed his headquarters at Argos, and sent forward an officer, 
with five hundred cavalry, to assume the command of the 
Turkish garrison at Nauplia, then hard pressed for supplies. 
At this juncture Prince Demetrius Hypsilantes acted with 
great courage and energy. His eloquent appeals to Koloko- 
trones, who held an independent command as a Klepht, and 
to Petrobey, the nominal chief commander in the Morea, 
inspired them with patriotic enthusiasm, and a large Greek 
force was quickly assembled at the mills of Lerna, south-west 
of Argos. The position was fortified by low walls, and flanked 
by the artillery of several Greek ships. The river Erasinus, 
issuing in a large stream from a cavern about two miles from 
Argos, confines the road leading to Lerna and Tripolitza 
between a rocky precipice and several artificial channels 
formed to conduct water for turning mills and for irrigating 
plantations of maize and cotton. Lower down, towards the 
sea, the plain is intersected with ditches and planted with 
vineyards. 

No position could be better suited than the line of the 
Erasinus for the work of the irregular Greek infantry against 
the Turkish cavalry, and the Greeks came off decidedly the 
better in the numerous skirmishes which took place. The 
mountains overlooking the plain of Argos were occupied by 
strong bodies of the patriots. The Turkish horse were very 
short of forage, the season being unusually dry. Provisions 
became scarce, and the invading troops, devouring freely 
grapes and unripe melons, fell victims to disease, and were 
soon compelled to fall back on Argos. On August 6 Dramali 
sent forward the first division of his army. The Greeks now 
largely outnumbered the Ottoman force, and in the recesses 
of the mountain country the Turks were severely handled. 
A Greek leader named Niketas was specially distinguished 
by his energy and skill, and in one ravine a terrible slaughter 



(Breefc Successes 101 

of the Turks was made under his direction. At last a general 
flight back to Corinth began, and immense booty fell into 
the hands of the victors. The personal valour of Niketas, 
who rushed sword in hand on a body of Turkish infantry 
which was rallying for an attack on his position, won for him 
the honourable nickname of " Turkophagos," or the Turk- 
eater. Two days later, on August 8, Dramali moved forward 
again ; but he was defeated by Hypsilantes and Niketas, and 
driven back on Corinth with the loss of his military chest 
and the whole baggage of the army. If the Greek leaders 
had combined their movements and acted with ordinary 
military skill, the whole Turkish invading army might have 
been annihilated. The fabulous accounts styled " history " 
by the Greek writers have awarded the praise in this case 
to Kolokotrones, whose own troops had no share in the 
glories of the two days' conflict. The remains of the Turkish 
army melted away at Corinth, and Dramali died in the following 
December. 

The success of the Greeks was followed, late in December, 
by the capture of Nauplia. During September, a series of 
skirmishes had taken place in the Gulf of Nauplia between 
the Greek fleet and a Turkish naval force seeking to relieve 
the fortress. Little credit was won on either side. Kanaris 
was not present, and the sailors of Hydra and Spetzas 
showed neither skill nor daring in handling the Greek fire- 
ships. The Turkish capitan-pasha (admiral) displayed positive 
cowardice, and sailed off at last without any serious attempt 
to throw supplies into the place he might have succoured. 
The defenders were suffering dreadfully from famine. 
Children were often found dead in the streets. The soldiers 
were so enfeebled that few were fit for duty, and the citadel 
was abandoned by the garrison. Before the occupation of the 
town by the Greeks, a scene of confusion occurred in disputes 
between the greedy Kolokotrones, who wished to have a chief 
share of plunder, and the soldiers of other leaders. The 



io2 1beto patriots 

arrival of an English frigate, under Captain Hamilton, a man 
of fine character, well known to several of the Greek chiefs, 
restored order, and the Turks were conveyed away safely to 
Asia Minor. We must now record a naval exploit. 

The Turkish admiral, after his failure to relieve Nauplia, 
recrossed the Archipelago, and anchored between the island 
of Tenedos and the Troad, amid scenes famed in Virgilian 
and Homeric verse. The contingents of the Greek fleet from 
the islands remained inactive in the ports of Hydra and 
Spetzas, neglecting to assail the capitan-pasha, though his 
cowardice and lack of energy were so well known. The 
great Kanaris came again to the front. At his instance, the 
community of Psara fitted out two fire-ships, and with these 
the heroic sea-warrior, on November 10, 1822, approached 
the Ottoman fleet, riding at anchor without a suspicion of 
peril. At daybreak, Kanaris and his colleague steered for 
two line-of-battle ships lying to windward of the rest of the 
fleet. Kanaris took for himself the more difficult task of 
assailing the leeward vessel. The breeze which brought up 
the Greek fire-ships had scarcely reached the Turks, whose 
vessels, under the influence of the current from the Dardanelles 
flowing through the Tenedos channel, were now swinging 
head to wind. Kanaris, with his usual keen observation and 
coolness, took advantage of the position, and ran aboard the 
foe just aft of the fore-chains on the larboard side. His ship 
was thus to windward, with sails nailed to the masts, the 
yards secured aloft by chains, and all the rigging saturated 
with turpentine. In an instant after the application of fire to 
the train, the flames rose above the main-top of the Turkish 
seventy-four, and her deck was wrapped in a whirlwind of 
fire. The crew had no time to escape in boats. Those who 
jumped out of the portholes were drowned as they made for 
the distant shore, and about eight hundred men perished. 
The ships at anchor cut their cables and sailed away. The 
commander of the other Greek fire-ship, who might, if he had 



JEncvQV ot /IDabmoufc 103 

been a Kanaris, have made a sure prey of the flag-ship of the 
Turkish admiral, failed in his effort. The vessel was run 
under the bowsprit of the Turkish liner as she swung to the 
breeze, and the fire-ship fell off and drifted away to leeward. 
The main Turkish fleet was soon gathered in the Dardanelles, 
but one corvette went ashore at Tenedos, and another was 
abandoned, amidst the panic, by her crew, and found floating 
a wreck in the Archipelago. Kanaris and the crews of the 
two fire-ships reached Psara in their boats. The great patriot 
had, with his own hand, during the year 1822, caused the 
Sultan the loss of two line-of-battle ships and nearly two 
thousand men. His fame was enhanced by contrast with the 
general mismanagement of the Greek navy, which had not 
prevented the ill-commanded Ottoman fleet from throwing 
supplies into the fortresses of Coron, Modon, Lepanto, and 
Patras, and from twice sailing over the Archipelago without 
any serious loss. During the year, however, the desultory ex- 
peditions of the men of Psara and Kasos had inflicted much loss 
on the Turks on the coasts of Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. 

At the opening of the year 1823 the cause of Greece was 
fairly before the world as that of a people resolved to be free, 
pitted against a powerful, able, and energetic sovereign, Sultan 
Mahmoud, determined to maintain Ottoman supremacy and 
the divine right of absolute rule. The Sultan's efforts were, 
for a time, frustrated by a great fire at Constantinople, 
destroying the arsenal and cannon foundry at Tophana, with 
an immense train of field-artillery, many hundreds of brass 
guns ready for new ships, and a vast amount of ammunition 
and military stores packed for service. Fifty mosques and 
about six thousand houses were also consumed, a large part 
of Pera being laid in ashes. The spirit of the ruler was not 
abated by this disaster. A small fleet was fitted out for 
desultory operations against the Greeks, and a new army was 
prepared for the invasion of the Morea by way of Lepanto 
and Patras. The military operations were entrusted to 



104 Ifoero patriots 

Reshid Pasha, who began his work by restoring order in 
northern Greece. Phocis and Bceotia were wasted by the 
Turkish cavalry, and the main army, under Mustai Pasha and 
Omar Vrioni, advanced through western Greece. The Greek 
leaders, at issue among themselves, made no due preparations 
to meet the enemy ; but the heroic Markos Bozzaris, a chief 
defender of Mesolonghi, again threatened by the Turkish 
advance, took matters into his own hands, and saved at least 
the honour of his country for that time. 

The first division of the Ottoman forces consisted of four 
thousand men, who encamped in the valley of Karpenisi, 
near an abundant fountain of pure water, forming a brook as 
it flows from its basin, shaded by a fine old willow-tree. 
Bozzaris was at the head of twelve hundred Suliotes, and he 
formed the bold resolution of attacking the enemy with a 
picked body of his men. At midnight on August 21, 1823, 
he surprised the Turkish camp at the head of three hundred 
and fifty warriors, broke into the midst of the foemen and 
rushed forward to slay the commander, Djelaleddin Bey. 
The Turks fled in haste, leaving their arms behind. The 
whole force might have been destroyed but for the supineness 
of the Greek leaders of the armato/i, or militia, of ^Etolia 
and Acamania, who remained in the villages on the heights 
idly watching the flashes of the Suliot muskets. The Albanian 
hero was thus sacrificed to Greek envy. The Turkish bey 
had pitched his tent in a mandra or walled enclosure, built 
to protect beehives or young lambs from badgers and foxes. 
Bozzaris reached this wall, and, finding no entrance, raised 
his head to look over it. The veteran troops under Djelaleddin, 
now aroused from slumber, were accustomed to nocturnal 
warfare, and several were on the watch when the Suliot hero's 
head rose above the wall, showing clearly against the grey sky. 
His brain was at once pierced with a ball, and the Suliots 
carried off his body. Thus died one of the chief patriots and 
warriors in this long contest, leaving behind him a glorious 



Xorfc B^ron in Greece 105 

name. His loss spread sorrow and consternation throughout 
the land. The initial success of the attack was not followed 
up. The brave Suliots knew nothing of scientific warfare, and 
their victorious career was stopped by a rough wall, which 
might have been carried by the use of a few hand-grenades 
against its defenders. They retired after collecting the spoil 
of the Turkish camp, which was very abundant in the shape 
of arms and ammunition. The advance of the Turks was not 
stayed by this temporary success of their opponents, and in 
October the united forces of Mustai and Omar Vrioni attacked 
Anatolikon, a small town in the lagoons about five miles west 
of Mesolonghi. The place was bombarded from a couple 
of mortars ; but little damage was done, and the siege was 
raised on December n. 

The Turkish fleet, in the course of the summer, threw 
supplies into Modon and Coron, on the south-west coast of the 
Morea, and landed a body of troops and a large sum of money 
at Patras. The Greek seamen of Psara, Samos, and Kasos 
were very active and enterprising, and committed great ravages 
on the coast of Asia Minor. During the autumn, the brave 
and skilful Miaulis sailed from Hydra with a small fleet ', 
but all his efforts were paralysed by dissension and disorder 
among his men, and he returned to port in October almost in 
a state of despair. Before the close of the year, in November, 
1823, the Turks surrendered the Acrocorinth, or citadel of 
Corinth. A massacre of the garrison by the Greeks was 
prevented only by the firmness and honourable conduct of 
Niketas, supported by the brave and steady men under his 
immediate command. 

The year 1824 opened with the arrival of Lord Byron at 
Mesolonghi. His brief career in Greece was unconnected 
with any important military event. He died on April 19, 
and we can only conjecture what services he might have 
rendered to the cause of freedom in political or military 
affairs. It is certain that he formed a more correct estimate 



io6 Ibero patriots 

of the character of the Greeks than any other foreigner. The 
leaders showed him clearly their selfishness and self-deceit, 
but he formed a high estimate of the virtues of the people, 
and sincerely praised the determined spirit with which they 
asserted their independence. In the course of the year 
there were two civil wars among the Greeks, and a great 
waste was made of the large sums of money lent from England. 
The Klepht leaders, as we have already shown, too often 
acted as mere brigands, plundering Greeks and Turks alike. 
The money obtained by the English loans was largely spent 
on gaudy equipments. Every man in the field was eager to 
assume the splendid Albanian dress with its gold-embroidered 
jacket, gilded yataghan, and silver-mounted pistols. Boundless 
fraud was committed in drawing pay and rations for ten times 
as many men as were really under arms. The more prudent 
of the civil authorities strove in vain to stay this system of 
plunder, and to deal with the gross corruption that prevailed 
in naval affairs. Within two years, all the money raised by 
loan had disappeared, and the cause of the revolt against 
Turkey was ruined, so far as Greek efforts were concerned, 
by the dishonesty of the government, military rapacity and 
incapacity, and want of discipline in the navy. Having now 
stated the main discreditable facts concerning the Greeks, we 
resume the narrative of military and naval operations, in 
which we shall have to refer to at least one instance of heroic 
and desperate defence on the revolutionary side, as honourable 
as any which history records. 

Early in 1824, Sultan Mahmoud adopted a new course of 
action, after a careful study of the causes of disaster in his 
fleets and armies. He resolved to destroy the outlying 
resources of the revolutionists before attacking the centre 
of their power in the Morea. He saw that the first step 
towards the reconquest of Greece must be the recovery of 
Turkish supremacy at sea. The Greeks were unable, from 
financial mismanagement, to replace the loss of a few ships. 



Uurfts Capture IKasos 107 

The Ottoman empire could afford to build a new fleet every 
year. The loss of a Turkish line-of-battle ship or frigate 
was a low price to pay for the destruction of one Greek brig ; 
the ruin of a Greek naval island was worth the sacrifice of 
a whole Turkish squadron. 

Psara and Kasos, the most exposed naval stations of his 
enemies, were selected as the first objects of attack. Their 
cruisers had inflicted the greatest losses on Mahmoud's maritime 
subjects, and their destruction would be more popular in the 
empire than any victory either by land or sea. Psara was 
the cause of intolerable mischief to the Mussulmans in Thrace 
and Asia Minor ; Kasos, off the east of Crete, was a torment 
to Syria and Egypt. The Sultan therefore concerted with 
Mehemet Ali, his viceroy in Egypt, a sudden and simultaneous 
attack on the two islands with separate fleets. The plans 
were skilfully formed and vigorously carried out. The island 
of Kasos, about twelve miles long, with a barren and iron- 
bound coast, contained at this time about seven thousand 
people, owning fifteen square-rigged ships and about forty 
smaller craft. These vessels had, for three years, been en- 
gaged in plundering the coasts of Crete, Rhodes, Cyprus, 
Syria, Egypt, and Karamania, the region of Asia Minor to 
the north of Cyprus. The force sent from Egypt to assail 
Kasos consisted of three frigates and ten sloops of war, con- 
veying three thousand Albanian troops. The island was ill 
fortified, and the inhabitants neglected all precautions against 
an enemy's descent. On June 19, 1824, the Albanians landed 
during the night, and scaled the rocks commanding the Kasiot 
batteries. The attack was a complete surprise for the people, 
dwelling in four villages high up in the mountain. These 
places were at once captured. All the men capable of bearing 
arms were slain : the old women shared their fate. The 
young women and the children were taken on board the 
Egyptian ships for sale in the slave market of Alexandria. 
The Kasiots in the batteries near the beach were soon 



108 Ifoero ipatvfots 

overcome by fire from the higher ground. Fourteen square- 
rigged vessels and about thirty smaller craft were taken, with 
the slaughter of five hundred Kasiot seamen. This success, 
the news of which spread consternation through Greece, cost 
the Albanians only thirty men killed and wounded. The 
disaster at Psara was greater still. 

The Turkish admiral, Khosreff Pasha, issued from the 
Dardanelles in May, escorting transports carrying three thou- 
sand janissaries. He took on board four thousand Asiatic 
troops, and then sailed for Psara with a fighting fleet of 
thirty-eight frigates, corvettes, and brigs. The high rocky 
island which he was about to attack is smaller than Kasos. 
The northern and eastern sides are precipitous. In the 
south-west lay the town, and below it, to the west, is a good 
anchorage sheltered by a rocky islet, Antipsara. The native 
Psarians numbered about seven thousand, but this population 
had been swelled by Greek refugees from Khios, Smyrna, 
and other quarters to over twelve thousand. A thousand 
Macedonian armatoli had been engaged to defend the island, 
and much other preparation had been made, though with 
little scientific skill. Two hundred guns were mounted in 
batteries which were ill-placed and ill-constructed. The Psarians 
were presumptuous and domineering from their success as 
privateers, and they rated far too low the skill and enterprise 
of their foes. Most of the ships were laid up in the road- 
stead of Antipsara, and the crews were employed as gunners 
on shore. In all, the island had four thousand well-armed 
defenders ; but, without a leader and devoid of discipline, 
the force was a mere mob. The Turkish capitan-pasha went 
to work in a very leisurely fashion, and consumed six weeks 
in making preparations which should have been completed 
in as many days. He had thus left ample time for a Greek 
fleet to work much mischief ; but nothing was done, through 
the jealousy and avarice of the Hydriot primates and the 
self-sufficiency of the Psarians, 



XTurfts Capture psara 109 

The attack on Psara was skilfully conducted. Khosreff 
Pasha, with ten ships, opened a heavy fire on the batteries, 
while he detached a part of his fleet so as to induce the 
Psarians to expect a debarkation of troops. In the meantime 
a body of men landed on a small open beach and stormed 
a battery manned by fifty armatoli. They then ascended 
the heights above the town, unfurled the Turkish flag, and 
fired a volley announcing their success to the Pasha and 
to the astonished Greeks. At a signal from the Turkish 
flag-ship, a hundred boats, filled with troops, pushed off and 
attacked all the batteries at the roadstead. After a brief 
engagement the assailants were everywhere victorious. Terror 
seized the defenders, and all who saw a chance of escape 
fled. Those whose retreat was cut off resisted with desperation, 
and no Psarian laid down his arms. Eight thousand persons 
were slain or reduced to slavery ; about four thousand, chiefly 
natives of the island, succeeded in getting on board vessels 
in the port while the enemy were busied in sacking the 
town. Only twenty vessels escaped : about one hundred, 
of various sizes, were taken. 

The news of the catastrophe at Psara, filling the Turks of 
Asia Minor with joy, roused to activity the mariners of Hydra 
and Spetzas. They hastened on board their ships, and the 
whole Greek fleet put to sea. The Turkish admiral had 
returned to Mytilene, and the Greek ships were able to save 
at Psara a few fugitives who had hidden themselves in caverns 
and secluded ravines. They also captured in the port two 
transports with some captives on board. There was soon 
work ready to their hands. Mehemet Ali of Egypt, as the 
Sultan's agent, was preparing for the reconquest of the Morea. 
A fleet of twenty-five sail was ready, and a hundred transports 
were gathered in the port of Alexandria to receive troops, 
provisions, and military stores. Eight thousand men and a 
thousand horses were embarked, and the great armament 
sailed from Alexandria on July 19, 1824, under Mehemet's 



no 1bero patriots 

able son, Ibrahim. The whole sea between Egypt, Cyprus, 
and Crete was dotted with ships as they beat up in small 
squadrons against the strong north winds prevailing in summer. 
On August 2 Ibrahim put into the Gulf of Makry, on the 
coast of Asia Minor, opposite Rhodes. Many of the trans- 
ports had reached this rendezvous. The troops were landed 
for the celebration of the Feast of Bairam, which was marked 
by a magnificent display. In the afternoon the whole army 
was drawn up on the beach. As the sun went down, bright- 
coloured lanterns were hoisted at the mast-heads of all the 
ships, and every gun joined in the thunders of a salute. 
The troops on shore then fired by platoons, companies, and 
battalions, until at last a continuous discharge of musketry 
along the whole line arose, prolonged in one incessant rattle 
for a quarter of an hour. The spectacle was wild and strange 
in the deserted bay, overlooked by the sculptured tombs of 
the ancient Telmessus, a city of Lycia. Suddenly, when the 
din of artillery and musketry had swelled to its loudest roar, 
every noise was hushed, and, as the smoke rolled away, the 
thin silver crescent of the new moon was visible in the cloud- 
less sky. A prolonged shout, repeated in melancholy cadence, 
rose from the army and was echoed back from the fleet. A 
minute later, a hundred camp-fires were lit, and the troops 
dispersed to their evening meal. 

The Egyptian fleet sailed next to Budrun, on the northern 
shore of the Gulf of Kos, and there joined that of Khosreff, 
the capitan-pasha, on September i. The united force con- 
sisted of a seventy-four, bearing the flag of the Turkish 
admiral, twenty frigates, twenty-five corvettes, and forty brigs 
and schooners, with nearly three hundred transports of every 
class. The Greek fleet had over seventy sail, mounting eight 
hundred and fifty guns, and manned by five thousand able 
seamen. These ships appeared on September 5 in the channel 
between Kos and the island of Kappari. The Turkish vessels 
got under weigh and stood out for action. The Greeks were 



Uurfetsfo Sbtps Burnt m 

seeking to cause confusion in the enemy's host, in order to 
have a favourable chance for their fire-ships. Suddenly four 
Turkish and Egyptian frigates sailed boldly forward to gain 
the weather-gage. Their object was to force Miaulis and 
the leading vessels of the Greek fleet under the guns of the 
fort of Kos. The naval skill of the Hydriots baffled this 
manoeuvre. Some confused fighting took place. A Greek 
fire-ship was directed against Ibrahim's frigate, but it drifted 
past, and burnt away harmlessly in the midst of the Ottoman 
fleet. Another fire-ship was forced by the Egyptians under 
the guns of Kos, and was left in the hands of the Turks. 
On the whole, the first battle off Budrun was favourable to 
the Ottoman force. Little damage was done on either side, 
but the Greeks should have made far better use of the oppor- 
tunity presented by the crowding of their enemies' ships in a 
narrow channel. 

On September 10 the Turks again stood out of Budrun, 
with the object of forcing a passage northwards to the island 
of Samos. A confused engagement ensued, in which both 
sides suffered several disasters. A Greek fire-ship was dis- 
masted, and burnt by its own crew. Three other fire-ships, 
launched in succession against an Egyptian brig, drifted away 
and burned out harmlessly to the water's edge. The Turks, 
on this, acted with unusual courage. The Tunisian commo- 
dore led his squadron boldly on. Two Hydriot fire-ships 
bore down upon him, and one grappled his frigate, which 
was blown up with her crew of four hundred men and two 
hundred and fifty regular Arab troops. The commodore, the 
colonel of the soldiers, and about fifty men were picked up 
by Greek boats. A Turkish corvette was also destoyed by 
a fire-ship from Psara, and the Ottomans, terrified by these 
losses, drew off. In a subsequent action the Greeks managed 
to prevent the Turkish admiral from landing troops on Samos, 
and both armaments were dispersed by heavy gales at the 
end of September. Khosreff Pasha returned to the Dardan 



H2 1bero patriots 

elles, leaving several of his frigates and corvettes with the 
Egyptian fleet. The Psarian vessels returned home, but 
Miaulis remained to harass the squadron of Ibrahim. In 
an action off Mytilene a Turkish corvette and an Egyptian 
brig were burned. Most of the Greek vessels, late in the 
season, sailed off without orders to Hydra and Spetzas ; but 
the indefatigable patriot Miaulis, now commanding but twenty- 
five sail, continued to watch and annoy the foe, though he 
was constantly impeded in his enterprises by the lack of order 
and discipline among his captains and crews. Ibrahim 
embarked his army at Budrun and steered for Crete. On 
November 13, as the whole Egyptian fleet approached the 
island, about twenty Greek brigs hove in sight, and seven or 
eight of the transports were taken. The convoy was so com- 
pletely dispersed that many vessels made off for Alexandria; 
a number of others reached Marmorice, on the Asiatic coast 
near Rhodes. The Greek ships then sailed away to Hydra 
with their prizes, leaving Ibrahim Pasha to invade the Morea. 
On December 5 that enterprising and energetic commander 
sailed from Marmorice, and reached Suda Bay, in Crete, before 
the end of the year. On February 24, 1825, he disembarked 
at Modon with four thousand regular infantry and five hundred 
cavalry, and his fleet, at once returning to Crete, brought 
across his second division, composed of six thousand infantry, 
five hundred cavalry and a strong body of field-artillery. The 
final phase of the revolutionary war had begun when the 
Egyptian army, on March 21, sat down before the fortress of 
Navarin. Strict discipline and perfect order prevailed in the 
camp of the invaders. The Greek camp seemed to contain 
an accidental crowd of armed men. The old castle on the 
ruins of Pylos, on a promontory at the northern entrance of 
the bay of Navarin, was also besieged by the Egyptians, the 
scene of action being that made famous in the pages of 
Thucydides. The garrison of Navarin consisted of sixteen 
hundred men ; that of Pylos, of eight hundred. The flower 



Jbrabim pasba Jnvafces /TOorea 113 

of the Greek army, over seven thousand men, advanced to 
relieve the two fortresses. Ibrahim, on April 19, attacked 
them with three thousand infantry, four hundred cavalry and 
four guns, and easily defeated them with a Greek loss of six 
hundred men left dead on the field. This affair decisively 
proved that the best Greek irregulars had no chance whatever 
in the open field against battalions of ordinary discipline. 
The island of Sphakteria, commanding the port of Navarin, 
was the key of the whole position. Greek neglect had left 
the island without defence, and at the last moment only two 
batteries, one of three eighteen-pounders, on the point, and 
another of four guns, were constructed. 

On May 8 the Egyptian fleet, carrying three thousand 
troops, put out from Modon, and opened a cannonade on 
Sphakteria. Under cover of this fire, a regiment of Arab 
regulars and some Turkish troops made a landing. The 
Greeks at the batteries fled before their charge, with the 
loss of three hundred and fifty men slain and two hundred 
taken prisoners. The capture of Sphakteria was followed, 
three days later, by the surrender of Pylos. The defence of 
Navarin was feeble. All hope of relief, both by land and sea, 
was cut off, and on May 21 the garrison surrendered on 
honourable terms, which were faithfully observed by the 
victor. Miaulis, with all his goodwill to the cause, had been 
unable to assemble a squadron capable of attacking the 
Egyptian fleet in the bay of Navarin ; but he made a gallant 
effort, before the surrender of the fortress, on some vessels in 
the harbour of Modon. On May 12, he sent six fire-ships 
at once into the midst of the Egyptian squadron as it lay at 
anchor. The attack was well planned and promptly and 
boldly executed. A terrible conflagration was caused, in 
which a fine double-banked frigate, fitted out at Deptford, 
three sloops of war, and seven transports, with a magazine of 
provisions on shore, were destroyed. This success had no 
influence on the fate of Navarin or on the main contest in the 

8 



H4 Ifoero patriots 

Morea; it only sufficed to show what might have been 
effected by the heroic and patriotic Miaulis, if he had received 
due support from his countrymen. 

Ibrahim Pasha advanced, after the fall of Navarin, towards 
the centre of the Peloponnesus, before any national effort 
was made to repel his invasion: The Greek government 
was lethargic and corrupt, and selfishness and party-animosity 
had far more influence than patriotism. A new army needed 
to be raised, and as the people of the Morea would have no 
other leader than Kolokotrones, that ambitious and avaricious 
man, limited as he was in military and administrative capacity, 
was again appointed to the chief command of the forces in 
the peninsula. A smart and well-contested battle was fought 
in the hills near Nauplia, at a village called Maniaki, the 
Greeks being commanded by a priest named Dikaios, having 
no military quality except courage. He had fifteen hundred 
Moreot peasants in an ill-selected position, and on June i, 
1825, he was there attacked by Ibrahim in person with six 
thousand men. A short and desperate struggle ended in 
the defeat of the Greeks ; but not until two-thirds of their 
force had fallen under the fire and bayonets of the Arabs, 
who left four hundred men dead on the field. The action 
was honourable to the worsted side, and the national spirit 
was revived by the severe loss inflicted on Ibrahim's regular 
troops. Dikaios died bravely at his post. 

Kolokotrones was completely out-generalled by Ibrahim, 
who turned his flank and seized important positions, and 
forced the Greeks to abandon Tripolitza without a struggle. 
Large stores of provisions were there secured, and the Egyptian 
general then pushed on, with about five thousand men, to 
the plain of Argos, hoping to capture Nauplia either by 
treachery or surprise. On June 24 he was near the mills of 
Lerna, already seen by us in this narrative. The town was 
thrown into the utmost alarm by his sudden appearance, and 
cries of treachery arose. The patriotism of the people, how- 



Jbrabtm ftasba's Successes 115 

ever, quickly rose to the height of the peril, and a force of 
three hundred and fifty men was sent to seize the Lerna 
position, where a large supply of grain was stored. The mills 
were surrounded by a stone wall, flanked by the marsh famous 
in mythology for the monster slain by Hercules, and by a deep 
pond. The garrison had the support of two gunboats anchored 
within musket-shot of the shore. An Arab attack on a small 
breach in the wall was repulsed by the Greeks. Reinforce- 
ments were continually reaching the patriots, and Ibrahim, 
after reconnoitring the neighbourhood of Nauplia, returned 
to Tripolitza before the end of June. Early in July Koloko- 
trones, preparing to blockade Tripolitza, had gathered about 
ten thousand men on the hills overlooking the great Arcadian 
plain. On July 6 Ibrahim attacked all his positions, and 
the Greek army was defeated without being dispersed. The 
soldiers, who only needed an able leader to cause much trouble 
to their foe, rallied in the mountain passes and showed great 
activity and perseverance. Kolokotrones had neglected to 
fortify the mills from which Tripolitza was supplied with flour. 
Ibrahim promptly seized and secured these valuable positions, 
connecting them with the town by a line of posts in the hills, 
and his foraging parties scoured the country from Mantinea 
to Megalopolis and obtained large quantities of grain. On 
August 13 the Egyptian general was back at Modon, and in 
a subsequent campaign he laid waste the country in every 
direction, intent on destroying the resources of the people, 
while his own troops were furnished with supplies by sea. 
We now turn to one of the chief events of the struggle, the 
famous second siege of Mesolonghi. 

This event was, for the patriots, the most glorious military 
operation of the whole war, and also that which best displayed 
the moral and political condition of the new Greek nation. 
The inertness and ignorance of the civil government, and 
the lack of ability in the military chiefs, are therein strongly 
contrasted with the unconquerable energy of the Greek people. 



n6 1bero ipatriots 

Never was there a smaller show of science in a siege : never 
did the population of a besieged town evince more constancy 
and courage. Greek patriotism, while hostilities died away to 
insignificance elsewhere, seemed to have concentrated itself 
within and around the walls of Mesolonghi. The duties of 
a trained garrison fell upon an undisciplined crowd of citizens 
in a small town, supported nobly by the fishermen of a shallow 
lagoon, and by the peasants of a region wasted by war. The 
task of assailing this asylum of Greek freedom was entrusted 
by Sultan Mahmoud to the able Reshid Pasha, the man whom 
we have seen in conflict at Petta. On April 29, 1825, with 
about six thousand men and three guns, he opened his first 
parallel against the town, at a distance of about six hundred 
yards from the walls. 

Mesolonghi was now in a good condition for defence. An 
earthen rampart, 2,300 yards in length, extended from the 
waters of the lagoon across the promontory on which the 
town was built. This rampart was partly faced with masonry, 
having flanking bastions near the centre, and batteries near 
each end. In front was a muddy ditch, not easy to pass, 
separating the fortress from the adjacent plain. Forty-eight 
guns and four mortars were mounted, and the garrison 
consisted of four thousand soldiers and armed peasants, 
aided by one thousand citizens and boatmen. The place was 
well supplied with ammunition and food when the siege 
began, but there were more than twelve thousand persons to 
sustain within the walls. Early in June, the besiegers had 
eight guns and four mortars. The approaches were pushed on 
rapidly, while the Greeks, on their side, constructed traverses 
and new batteries. On June 10 a Greek squadron of seven 
sail arrived, encouraging the besieged by landing a large 
supply of military and other stores, and by the announcement 
that Miaulis would soon appear with a large fleet. The garrison 
at once began to make frequent and vigorous sorties, and 
the Turks were, on their side, repulsed with severe loss in an 



Ibetotc defence of /l&esolonabt 117 

assault on the little isle of Marmoras near the western end of 
the rampart. 

On July 10 the Greeks had a severe disappointment in the 
arrival, not of a relieving squadron under the gallant Miaulis, 
but of a large Turkish fleet under the capitan-pasha. Reshid 
now adopted vigorous measures. Introducing a number of 
flat-bottomed boats into the lagoon, he gained possession of 
two small islands, and completely invested Mesolonghi by sea 
and land. At the end of July and early in August, two furious 
assaults on different bastions were repulsed. After the first 
failure, terms were offered to the garrison and refused, and 
the Turkish commander thereupon beheaded some prisoners 
before the walls. The cruisers of the Turkish fleet had 
already announced the approach of a powerful Greek squadron. 

On August 3 the garrison descried forty 'sail of the best 
ships which Greece still possessed, under the command of 
the veteran Miaulis and of Georgios Sachturis, the next naval 
commander in ability and courage. After some manoeuvring 
the Greeks were unable to break the line of the main Turkish 
division, consisting of twenty-two ships. Three fire-ships were 
vainly employed against the flag-ship of Khosreff, the capitan- 
pasha ; but he was so intimidated by the determined attempts 
of the enemy that he avoided any further action, and sailed 
away for Alexandria on the pretence of effecting a junction 
with the Egyptian fleet. His cowardice left the flotilla of 
Reshid in the lagoon without support, and as the Greeks had 
captured a transport laden with powder and shells for the 
army, the besiegers were left short of ammunition for their 
mortars. Miaulis next aided the besieged in driving the 
Turks from their posts in the lagoons, and in destroying the 
flotilla. He then sailed off in pursuit of the Turkish fleet, 
leaving eight vessels to keep open communications with the 
English at the Ionian Islands and to cut off supplies sent 
by sea to the besiegers. 

Reshid was now in a very difficult position. His supplies 



n8 1bero patriots 

of provisions were irregular ; his store of ammunition was 
so scanty that he was compelled to abandon the hope of 
forcing the surrender of Mesolonghi by bombardment. He 
was without pay for his troops, and the Albanians returned 
home. The Turkish commander then resorted to the spade, 
and set his army to raise a mound before the walls. This 
primitive work was carried on towards the ramparts in spite 
of all the efforts of the besieged. It was from five to eight 
yards broad at the base, and so high as to overlook the walls. 
After much severe righting in the trenches, the mound was 
extended to the ditch, the ditch was filled up, and one of 
the bastions was stormed. The besieged had, however, cut off 
this work from the other defences, and soon erected batteries 
which commanded it. The Mesolonghiots then became the 
assailants, and, after a hard struggle, drove the Turks from 
the bastion. By the end of August all lost ground was re- 
gained, and a great effort against the mound was prepared. 
On September 21 the whole garrison made a great sortie, and 
attacked the Turkish camp with the utmost fury. In the 
end, the Greeks carried the works protecting the head of the 
mound, and kept possession until they had levelled the part 
which threatened their defences. Rain soon made it im- 
possible for the besiegers to repair damages. Considerable 
reinforcements had come into Mesolonghi, and by the end 
of September the garrison, still amounting to four thousand 
five hundred men, was much more efficient than at the 
beginning of the siege. On October 13 a vigorous sortie 
inflicted such loss on the Turks that Reshid withdrew his 
army to a fortified camp at the foot of Mount Zygos, where 
he awaited the return of the Turkish fleet, and reinforcements 
to be brought by Ibrahim Pasha. 

Karaiskakis, a man whom we have thought worthy, on the 
whole, of ranking among the patriotic heroes of the Greek 
struggle against Turkey, now appeared on the scene of action. 
During the early years of the revolution, his conduct was 



3brabim at /Ifoesolonabi 119 

devoid of good principle ; but he lived to redeem his name, 
and became one of the bravest and most active leaders in 
the latter part of the contest. His military talents were those 
of a commander of irregular bands, without any formal plan 
of campaign. At this time he threw himself with a body of 
men into a strong position on the Turkish rear. The garrison 
of Mesolonghi destroyed, but in no thorough style, the works 
of the besiegers, and they were culpably careless in failing to 
bring in a supply of grain which had been collected in maga- 
zines on the western coast of the Morea. On November 18 
the Ottoman fleet returned to Patras in time to save Reshid's 
army from starvation, and brought him some reinforcements, 
with an ample supply of ammunition. The Greek fleet, under 
Miaulis, came up too late to interrupt the landing of stores. 
A series of indecisive naval engagements followed. Miaulis 
threw supplies into the besieged town, and kept open com- 
munication with the Ionian Islands ; but the Turkish ships 
kept their station at Patras, and early in December the Greek 
fleet sailed away to Hydra. 

Mesolonghi was now to be tested to the utmost in the 
arrival of Ibrahim Pasha, who was by this time master of the 
Morea. His march from Navarin to Patras was not opposed, 
and he gathered on the way large quantities of grain which 
ought either to have been destroyed by the Greeks or sent 
to the gallant defenders of Mesolonghi. The month of 
December was employed by Ibrahim in forming magazines, 
and bringing up ammunition to his camp before the town. 
Nothing could be done at the trenches owing to heavy rain — 
the whole plain was transformed into a marsh. The Greek 
government seemed to wake up at last to the need of aid for 
Mesolonghi ; but they had no means of raising supplies, and 
it was a large subscription of Greek patriots of all classes, 
except the official, which enabled a Greek fleet to put to sea. 
Twenty Hydriot and four Psarian ships were equipped, and 
on January 21, 1S26, these vessels forced the Turkish cruisers 



i2o 1bero patriots 

to retire under the guns of Patras, and enabled the besieged 
to obtain from the Ionian Islands stores of provisions and 
ammunition for two months. Most of the Greek ships then 
sailed away. 

On February 25 Ibrahim opened his fire from batteries 
mounting forty pieces, and on the 27th and 28th two attempts 
to storm the walls were repulsed. A flotilla of thirty-two flat- 
bottomed boats was then launched, and the Turks had quickly 
the command of the lagoon. The fort commanding the 
entrance of the lagoon leading from the sea directly to the 
town was stormed on March 9, and four days later Anatolikon 
surrendered. Ibrahim, hearing that provisions were again 
running short in Mesolonghi, offered terms of capitulation, 
but these were rejected with disdain. The besieged expressed 
their resolve to defend the place to the last, and bade the 
two pashas, if they wanted their arms, to come and take 
them. An attack of Reshid's Albanian troops on an islet 
about a mile from the town, to the south-east, was repulsed 
with loss, and Ibrahim then brought up his Egyptian regulars. 
Three determined assaults were vainly made, and a hundred 
and fifty good Greek marksmen, defending a mere sandbank, 
with a low earthen rampart and a little chapel with an arched 
roof of stone, had caused their enemies the loss of five 
hundred men in killed and wounded. During April, a Greek 
fleet under Miaulis again appeared ; but that brave and skilful 
man had not the means of effecting anything worthy of mention. 
His vessels were much inferior in force to those of the Turks ; 
his crews were wanting in the old heroic enterprise. The 
fire-ships failed to cause any damage, and the Greek admiral 
was forced to leave Mesolonghi to her fate. The magazines 
in the town had only rations for two days, and the garrison 
and people had before them death by starvation, or surrender, 
or the terrible enterprise of striving to force a way through 
the besiegers. 

Rarely in history has patriotism raised any beleaguered 



Great Sortie from /Ifcesolonafof 121 

population to such a height of heroism as was now displayed 
at Mesolonghi. The soldiers and citizens resolved to dare all 
rather than submit to the foe. For once there was unanimity 
in Greek counsels. The inhabitants who were unable to bear 
arms, the women, the children, were as patient and brave 
in this dreadful position as the veteran soldiers hardened in 
warfare with the Turks. After deliberate consultation in a 
numerous assembly, it was decreed that the fighters should 
force a passage for the whole population through the Turkish 
lines. Many would perish, some might escape. The dead 
and the living would alike be free. A skilful plan was formed ; 
but fortune, on this occasion, did not favour the brave, and 
success was marred by several accidents. 

About sunset on April 22, 1826, a discharge of musketry 
was heard by the besieged from the ridge of Zygos. The 
signal informed the leaders in Mesolonghi that fifteen hundred 
men from the camp of Karaiskakis were ready to attack the 
Turkish rear in aid of the great sortie. The garrison was 
mustered in three divisions. Bridges had been made ready 
to throw across the ditch, and breaches had been opened in 
the walls. Of the nine thousand persons remaining in the 
town, three thousand could bear arms. Nearly two thousand 
men, women, and children were so feeble from age, disease, 
or starvation, that they must be left behind, and some of the 
relatives of the helpless stayed to share their fate. The 
non-combatants who were to join the sortie were drawn up 
in several bodies, each under the escort of a chief and his 
men. Most of the women were dressed as Albanian soldiers, 
and carried weapons ; most of the children had loaded pistols 
in their belts, and many knew how to use them. 

At nine o'clock in the evening the bridges were placed over 
the ditch without noise, and a thousand soldiers crossed and 
ranged themselves along the covered way of the besiegers' 
works. A traitorous deserter had prepared the enemy for the 
attempt. A terrific fire was opened on the most crowded 



122 1bero patriots 

parts of the bridges as soon as the non-combatants began to 
cross, but the greater part got over in tolerable order. The 
native Mesolonghiots, in a separate band, had lingered behind, 
loth to leave their relations and their property, and the 
garrison, under a heavy fire, waited patiently for them. At 
last the leading men of the tardy patriots crossed the ditch, 
and then the troops, with a loud shout and sword in hand, 
rushed on the Turks. A most valiant charge, in three 
divisions aiming at different roads for escape, was made. At 
this moment, an ill-timed cry of panic did a traitor's work. 
Some of the Mesolonghiots on the bridges shouted " Back, 
back ! " and a great part of the band stopped, retired, and 
re-entered the town with the military escort which was to 
form the rearguard of the sortie. There can be little doubt 
that this unfortunate occurrence had its origin with people in 
danger of being forced into the ditch. The three leading 
divisions of the Greeks bore down all opposition. The 
yataghans of Reshid's Albanians, the bayonets of Ibrahim's 
Arabs, were vain against the rush, and a way was forced, with 
no great loss, amid the labyrinth of trenches and other works. 
Only some women and children were left behind. 

The evil action of the deserter was most fatal in having 
caused the Turkish and Egyptian commanders to send cavalry 
to watch the roads aimed at by the three Greek divisions. It 
was when they were about a mile beyond the Turkish lines 
and beginning to have some sense of safety that the columns 
fell in with the horsemen. One division of the Greeks was 
broken by the first charge of the cavalry, and the others were 
much disordered. Small bands of the brave garrison still 
kept together, and by their continuous fire enabled numbers 
of women and children to rally under their protection. At 
last the scattered remnants of the three bodies were beginning 
to recover some order on reaching the slopes of Mount Zygos, 
where the cavalry could not act, when a thousand Albanian 
musketeers, posted for the purpose by Reshid Pasha, suddenly 



ffall of /l&esolongbt 123 

fired on them. The men were obliged to scatter in flight ; 
most of the women and children were made prisoners. About 
midnight, small parties of the garrison of Mesolonghi and 
a few women and children reached the post occupied by the 
Greek troops from the camp of Karaiskakis ; but they were 
only fifty men instead of fifteen hundred. The plan for 
assailing the Turkish rear had failed through dissensions among 
the military leaders. In the end, about fifteen hundred of the 
fugitives reached Salona during the month of May. Of these, 
about thirteen hundred were soldiers. There were a few girls, 
and some boys under twelve years of age. We return to the 
town of Mesolonghi. 

As soon as the two Pashas found that most of the garrison 
had left the place, they ordered a general assault. Their 
troops met no resistance in occupying the whole line of the 
ramparts. The Greek soldiers whom wounds or disease had 
disabled from marching had taken refuge in different buildings. 
Those who occupied the chief powder-magazine, being sur- 
rounded by the Turks, set fire to the powder and perished 
in the explosion. It was not until morning dawned that 
the Turkish troops went into the interior of the town. 
The whole day was spent in plundering. A second powder- 
magazine was exploded by its defenders, who perished along 
with the assailants. A windmill used as a central depot for 
ammunition was defended until April 24, and then the little 
garrison, destitute of provisions, blew up the place, preferring 
death to surrender. The loss of the Greeks in these events 
amounted to four thousand, and it is probable that at least 
a thousand more perished from wounds and starvation. 
About three thousand prisoners, chiefly women and children, 
were taken. About two thousand made their escape in all, 
including those who made their way to Salona. This 
memorable siege rivals that of Plataea in ancient days, as 
described by Thucydides, in the energy and constancy of 
the defenders. 



1^4 1bero patriots 

After the capture of Mesolonghi, the Turkish fleet returned 
to Constantinople, and the Egyptian ships to Alexandria. 
Ibrahim Pasha went to the Morea to complete his conquest. 
With only four thousand infantry and six hundred cavalry he 
worked his will, laying Achaia waste and capturing large 
herds of cattle and countless flocks of sheep. Marching to 
Tripolitza, the Egyptian commander was joined by large 
reinforcements from Modon, and the summer was employed 
in deliberate devastation, for the purpose of starving the 
Moreots into submission. In Achaia, Elis, Arcadia, Messenia, 
and Laconia, the crops were either destroyed or carried off. 
Villages were burned to the ground, cattle driven away, and 
all inhabitants taken were either shot or sold as slaves. 
During the following winter numbers of the peasantry, 
especially women and children, died of sheer hunger. The 
military operations of Kolokotrones and the other chiefs in 
Peloponnesus were conducted without any union, vigour, or 
skill. At the end of the year Ibrahim found his troops so 
worn out by disease and fatigue that he was compelled to 
wait for reinforcements from Egypt. 

Meanwhile, Reshid Pasha, having fixed his headquarters 
at Mesolonghi in June, 1826, received the submission of many 
chiefs in continental Greece, and then marched across into 
Attica, after occupying the passes over Mounts (Eta, Knemis, 
Parnassus, and Parnes, and reinforcing the garrison of Thebes. 
The Attic peasantry, having been plundered ruthlessly by 
Greek leaders, welcomed Reshid as a deliverer, and he began 
the siege of Athens with an army of seven thousand men, 
including eight hundred splendid cavalry, and with a good 
artillery-train of twenty-six guns and mortars. The hill of 
the Museion was occupied, and batteries were erected on the 
level above the Pnyx and at other points. On the night of 
August 14 he stormed the town, and drove the people into 
the Acropolis. Six days later Reshid utterly defeated a 
body of four thousand men advancing to the relief of the 



Efforts of IKaraisfeafete 125 

Acropolis, including two thousand five hundred irregulars 
under Karaiskakis, and fifteen hundred regular troops under 
a French officer, Colonel Fabvier. Karaiskakis soon regained 
his reputation with his own men by a successful foray in 
which they captured a great herd of cattle destined for the 
use of the Turkish army. Fabvier, for his part, withdrew his 
men to Salamis. 

A cry of indignation arose in Greece at the incapacity and 
negligence of the government with regard to attempts for the 
relief of the besieged Acropolis, which Reshid had been in 
vain attacking by bombardment and by mining. Karaiskakis 
advanced in a movement which enabled another leader to 
land a force unobserved in the Bay of Phalerum, whence 
he reached the Acropolis, without loss, at the head of four 
hundred and fifty men. The besieged fortress being safe 
for a time, Karaiskakis moved off to Mount Helicon, with the 
view of capturing some of the Turkish magazines in Bceotia 
and intercepting Reshid Pasha's supplies from Thessaly. The 
Acropolis had now a garrison of about one thousand men, but 
they were encumbered by the presence of over four hundred 
women and children. The supply of wheat and barley was 
abundant, but there was no fuel for baking bread. At this 
juncture, faction and imbecility among the Greek leaders 
prevented any due effort for the relief of the place. The 
Turks had no squadron in the channel of Eubcea, and a 
force might have been taken to any point for an attack on 
the rear of Reshid's army. All his supplies by sea might 
have been intercepted, and much mischief wrought to the 
Turkish cause in conjunction with the troops of Karaiskakis 
at Mount Helicon. The Greek navy, however, either remained 
idle or engaged in piracy. The only good work for the cause 
at this time was done by Karaiskakis, heading three thousand 
of the best troops in the country. Though he was greatly 
hampered in his operations by difficulty in obtaining supplies 
of food for his troops, he displayed both activity and sound 



126 Dero patriots 

judgment. His object was to throw his whole force on the 
rear of Reshid's army, to master his line of communications, 
and destroy his magazines. In the mountains about Parnassus 
he contrived, by prompt and skilful movements, to blockade 
a body of Turkish troops, whom he then attacked with the 
loss of most of their baggage and provisions. During the 
night after their defeat they made a bold attempt to escape 
to Salona by climbing the precipices of Parnassus, left un- 
guarded by the Greeks. At sunrise they were pursued, and 
on December 6 they were nearly all destroyed. A brave but 
hopeless defence was made ; no quarter was asked or granted. 
Many were frozen to death. Three hundred, under cover of 
a dense fall of snow, climbed the precipitous hills and reached 
Salona. The heads of four Turkish beys were sent to ^Egina 
as a token of victory. On February T2, 1827, a general 
attack on the Greeks under Karaiskakis was made at Dystomo, 
the Turks being defeated ; but the complete exhaustion of the 
country forced the Greek leader to fall back on Megara and 
Eleusis, in order to co-operate in a direct attack on Reshid's 
force at Athens. 

The supply of powder in the Acropolis had become ex- 
hausted, and Colonel Fabvier was entrusted with the task of 
succour. About midnight on December 12, 1826, he landed 
in the bay of Phalerum with six hundred and fifty picked men, 
each of whom carried on his back a leathern sack filled with 
gunpowder. The whole body reached the Turkish lines 
unobserved and in good order. They were then formed in 
column and rushed on the enemy's guard with fixed bayonets, 
while the drums beat a loud signal for the garrison of the 
Acropolis to divert attention by a desperate sortie. Fabvier 
cleared all before him, swiftly leading on his troops under a 
shower of grape and musket-balls, and the whole body arrived 
within the walls of the Acropolis, with the loss of only six 
men killed and fourteen wounded. This was one of the most 
brilliant episodes of the war. 



JE\ib of tbe Mar 127 

The Greek cause had been rendered hopeless by the chronic 
anarchy of the " government " and the leaders in the field. 
The active strength of both army and navy was rapidly 
diminishing. The people in general had lost all confidence 
in the abilities and the honesty both of military men and 
politicians. Some of the bravest and most patriotic chiefs 
had fallen in battle. Kanaris and Miaulis survived, bright 
names amidst the gloom ; but they had no work provided 
for them in a country whose naval force had turned from 
patriotic deeds to piracy. Karaiskakis alone was doing any 
good work in the field. The peasantry alone remained true 
to the national cause ; but they could do little more than 
patiently endure. Many died of hunger rather than submit 
to the Turks, especially in the Morea, where they feared lest 
Ibrahim, in case of their submission, would convey their 
children to slavery in Egypt. 

Some further efforts were made to raise the siege of the 
Acropolis. In February 1827 Reshid Pasha defeated a body 
of eight hundred irregulars under Colonel Burbaki, a native 
of Cephalonia, and various other attempts failed. On May 4 
Karaiskakis, the last hope of the Greek cause, was mortally 
wounded in a skirmish, and two days later Reshid inflicted 
a ^otal defeat on a relieving force, with the loss of fifteen 
hundred Greeks and six guns. Some thousands of the Greek 
army at the Piraeus deserted after this disastrous battle of 
Phalerum, and on June 5 the Acropolis was surrendered. 
About fifteen hundred persons, including four hundred women 
and children, came forth. This event was followed by Reshid 
Pasha's conquest of that part of continental Greece which 
Karaiskakis had occupied. The country was by this time 
utterly exhausted, and it was only the interference of European 
powers which ultimately secured Greek independence. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE SOUTH AMERICAN REVOLUTION 

SIMON BOLIVAR, l8ll — 1830 

Simon Bolivar, El Libertador — His early Career — Gross "Misrule of 
Spanish Colonies in South America — Rising at Caracas in 1810 — 
Bolivar joins the Venezuelan Revolt — Is obliged to surrender Puerto 
Cabello — Retires to Cartagena — Takes Field in New Granada — His 
Success against Royalists — Invades Venezuela — Atrocious Cruelty 
of Spaniards — Bolivar's Campaign of 1813 — Spanish General 
Monteverde defeated — Bolivar enters Caracas in Triumph — The 
Llaneros of the Orinoco join the Patriots — The Margaritans — 
Monteverde again defeated— Campaign of 1814 — Success of Royalists 
under Boves — Bolivar defeated — Caracas and La Guayra taken by 
Spaniards — Bolivar in New Granada — Captures Santa Fe — Large 
Reinforcements arrive from Spain — Spanish General Morillo suc- 
cessful — Bolivar retires to Jamaica (1815) — Morillo seizes Santa Fe 
(Bogota) — Cruelties — Spanish attempt to assassinate Bolivar in 
Jamaica — He goes to Haiti (Santa Domingo) — Aided by a Dutchman, 
Luis Brion — Renews Venezuelan War in December 1816 — His Heroic 
Conduct — Joined by Paez, Llanero Leader — Campaign of 1817 — 
Bolivar defeats Morillo — Paez successful — Bolivar at Angostura — 
Campaign of 18 18 — Great Success of Patriots — Bolivar's Grand 
Campaign — Venezuelan Independence proclaimed — Campaign of 
1819 — Bolivar in Supreme Power — Joined by a British "Legion" — 
His General Success in Field — Invades New Granada — His Great 
March across the Cordilleras — Difficulties overcome — The Scene 
among the Mountains — Arrival on New Field of Action — Spaniards 
defeated — Courage of British Infantry — Bolivar's Dashing Leader- 
ship — His Great Victory at Boyaca (August 17, 1819) — Triumphant 
Entry into Bogota (Santa Fe) — Bolivar appointed President of New 
Granada Republic — Returns to Angostura — His Reception by the 
People— Venezuela and New Granada United as " Republic of 
128 




[Face page 128. 



SIMON BOLIVAR. 



Earls Xite of bolivar 129 

Colombia " — Bolivar, as President, troubled by Dissensions — A Six- 
months' Truce with Royalists — Renewal of War — Campaign of 1821 
— Bolivar's Rapid Success — Santa Marta stormed — His Victory at 
Carabobo, in Venezuela — He captures La Guayra — Grand Entry 
into Caracas — Spaniards cleared out of Colombia — Bolivar in Peru 
— General Sucre's Victory for Patriots at Pichincha — Bolivar enters 
Lima and receives Dictatorial Authority — Independence of South 
American States recognised — Bolivar again in Field against Spanish 
Forces— Grand Review of his Army — He defeats the Royalists — 
Resigns his Peruvian Dictatorship and returns to Colombia (1826) — 
Upper Peru becomes " Bolivia " — Attempts on his Life by Royalist 
Party — Assailed by Calumny — His Great Scheme for South America 
— Movement against his Measures in Peru — The Country pacified — 
Bolivar in Supreme Power in Colombia (1828) — Civil Strife arises — 
Bolivar resigns Office' (1830)— His Death — Character of Bolivar 
■ — His Great Services — In Advance of his Age — Honours to his 
Memory at a Later Day. 

SIMON Y PONTE BOLIVAR, gloriously named El 
Libertador ("the Liberator"), as the deliverer of a large 
portion of the Spanish South-American colonies from the 
tyranny of the mother-country, was born in the Venezuelan 
city of Caracas, on July 24, 1783. He came of noble 
families by his parentage on both sides, and his father was 
the wealthy owner of large estates. In early youth he had 
a careful training, and his knowledge and mental power 
were afterwards extended and invigorated by study at 
universities in the United States and several European 
countries. He was a reader of political writers of all 
ages, and became a man of energetic and reflective 
intellect to a degree rarely found in his race. He was a 
fluent speaker and able writer in Spanish, French, Italian, 
German, and English. In the course of his foreign travels 
he visited Paris, where he witnessed some of the closing 
scenes of the French revolutionary period before Napoleon's 
advent to supreme power. In 1801 he returned to Caracas, 
and married at the age of eighteen, but soon lost his young 
wife. In 1804, he again visited Europe, and in 1809 he was 
in the United States. He had either received by nature's 

9 



130 1bero patriots 

gift, or had acquired in revolutionary France or in the rising 
states of North America, then lately emancipated from British 
control, a deep love of freedom, and he afforded convincing 
proof thereof when he inherited the paternal property. Bolivar 
was the man who, in his own country, gave the first example 
of setting free the slaves on his estates, and he thus prepared 
the way, in a measure, for the revolution which was at last to 
succeed in the Spanish colonies, after hapless efforts made in 
1780, 1787, 1794, and 1797. 

The blood which had been then shed by the Spanish rulers 
cried for vengeance, and the system of government was making 
the domination of Spain unendurable. One example will 
suffice. It is an instance of gross mis-government which 
appeals most strongly to those who, like the home-dwelling 
subjects of the British Empire for more than half a century, 
have enjoyed the blessings of freedom of trade. An associa- 
tion styled the Philippine Company, composed of merchants 
and capitalists of the province of Biscay, in Spain, had pur- 
chased from the Spanish crown the privilege, as regarded the 
colonies in South America, of importing and exporting 
merchandise and provisions of every kind, and of fixing the 
price of all commodities. On the mainland of South America, 
neither the captain-general (commander-in-chief) nor the 
viceroy could alter the prices of articles fixed by the 
Company. All persons trading with the people without 
authorisation from the Company were liable to capital punish- 
ment. The Company had armed revenue-cruisers (guarda- 
costas or coast-guard vessels) employed to prevent all business 
relations except with persons authorised by the Company. 
The net profit of the associates in this remarkable gang of 
legalised robbers amounted to about three hundred per cent. 
Comment on this atrocious system is needless. Of itself, in 
the eyes of all reasonable lovers of freedom, it presents ample 
justification for armed revolution. 



©ut&reaft of 1Rev>olt 131 

Among the first leaders of revolt were Marino, Joseph de 
Espana, Picornel, and Manuel Glial, all men of good families 
in Venezuela. After the rising of Caracas in April 1810 
Bolivar went to London as an envoy to seek help from the 
British Cabinet, but he returned unsuccessful. For a time, 
he held aloof from the movement, doubtful of success, and 
because he disapproved the composition and action of the 
revolutionary Congress which had assumed power on the 
first outbreak. In 181 1, however, the danger of his country 
became so great that he could no longer abstain from active 
exertions in the cause of freedom. Many were deserting the 
ranks of the patriots, and the life of every citizen known to 
favour the good cause was menaced by the Spaniards. On 
July 5, 181 1, the Venezuelans finally declared for indepen- 
dence, and war began with the Spanish colonial government. 
Bolivar now hastened to range himself under the banners of 
General Miranda, receiving a commission as colonel from 
the supreme junta or council, and some successful actions 
were fought with the Spanish troops. The new adherent of 
the cause was charged with the defence of the fortress of 
Puerto Cabello, against which the enemy's force were 
marching. It is a port on the Caribbean Sea, about eighty 
miles west of Caracas. The castle of San Felipe, which 
commanded the town, was treacherously surrendered to the 
Spaniards, and Bolivar was then obliged to yield the place 
and retire to the Dutch island of Curacao (or Curacoa), 
whence he sailed to Cartagena, an important place on a sandy 
island off the north coast of the country now called Colombia, 
south-west of the mouth of the river Magdalena. 

Bolivar had thus failed in his first efforts, and if he had not 
forfeited the just confidence of the revolutionists, who knew 
the impossibility of his holding out at Puerto Cabello, his 
failure enabled the royalists to calumniate him by charges 
of deserting Miranda and delivering him up to his enemies. 
It is, however, well established that it was nearly a month 



132 Ifoero patriots 

after Bolivar's departure that Miranda capitulated, and was 
then, in violation of the terms agreed on, not exiled, but sent 
away for imprisonment in Madrid. After the temporary 
failure of the revolutionary party, the Spaniards treated the 
patriots with abominable cruelty. The governor, Monteverde, 
was ever inventing new " plots," in order to have excuse for 
striking at families of good position, and carrying his cruelty 
into all the districts which had embraced the patriotic cause. 
The prisons were opened and the criminals were armed as 
guerillas against the supporters of freedom in every quarter, 
with a view to their extermination. 

These occurrences brought Bolivar again to the front from 
his exile at Cartagena. He gathered a force in New Granada, 
(now Colombia), and his first important movement was an 
expedition against TenerifTe, a town on the Magdalena, which 
he captured. His forces swelled as he advanced, and he then 
marched on the town of Mompox, and drove the royalist 
troops from all their positions on the upper Magdalena, finally 
entering the town of Ocana amid enthusiastic demonstrations 
from the people. Encouraged by this success, Bolivar be- 
thought him of the misery of his native land, and formed the 
bold plan of invading Venezuela with a little force of five 
hundred men. The country was held by a strong Spanish 
army under Monteverde ; but Bolivar was never the man to 
think of odds against him in any struggle. The Congress 
of New Granada had given him a commission as brigadier- 
general. After encountering many difficulties in his advance, 
and driving General Correa from the valley of Cucuta, he 
began his march for Venezuela. Wisely rash in this brave 
enterprise, the hero plunged into the province of Merida, and 
issued a proclamation calling on all good citizens to aid him. 
It was in September 1812 that he took the field anew, and 
he was at once successful. The people rose in arms for 
freedom as he moved on, and he soon became dominant in 
the provinces of Merida and Truxillo. All towns before which 



JBoIfvar's Campaign of 1813 133 

he made his appearance surrendered, and with only a 
thousand trained men at his back, he kept up a harassing 
warfare against Monteverde's numerous, fresh, and well- 
equipped troops. 

The year 1813 was, for Bolivar, one of dangers and of 
wearisome toil. The royalist troops were guilty of all kinds 
of atrocities. Towns were plundered, houses burnt ; women 
were publicly subjected to brutal ill-treatment by the maddened 
soldiers. Most of the patriot population was plunged into 
mourning, or shut up in noisome cells, or destroyed by 
organised bands of ruffians. All prisoners of war were shot 
without mercy. Countless victims were put to death without 
any trial. The Spanish system of dealing with the revolt was, 
in fact, worthy only of cowardly savages. One of their 
practices was to place prisoners in the front rank in a battle, 
so that they might be shot by their own friends. These things 
roused Bolivar to the point of issuing two terrible decrees, 
on June 8 and July 15, 18 13. He had been already hailed 
as " Liberator," and invested with the supreme command, 
and he now retorted on the cruel royalists by his proclamations 
issued from Merida and Truxillo, declaring guerra a muerte^ 
or war to the death, against all Spaniards who should fall 
into the hands of the patriots. This threat was only once 
carried out, and then to the great regret of Bolivar and the 
men under his command ; but it had its effect in staying 
Spanish atrocities. 

When the patriot-general entered on his campaign of 18 13 
in western Venezuela, he was reinforced by some thousands 
of his countrymen who, reduced to despair by Spanish cruelty, 
had no choice other than to conquer or to die. He divided 
his new army into two brigades, one under his own charge, 
the other led by Ribas, his chief-of-the- staff. They advanced 
on Caracas by forced marches and by different routes. The 
Spanish troops, in several combats, made only a slight 
resistance, and at last the governor, Tiscar, thinking all lost, 



134 1bero patriots 

left his army and fled to Angostura. As soon as General 
Monteverde heard of the rapid march of the patriots, he 
gathered his best troops at Lostaguanes, where he was soon 
attacked by Ribas. At the beginning of the action, the chief 
part of the Spanish cavalry, native Venezuelans, went over to 
the patriots, and soon decided the battle in their favour. 
Monteverde lost some hundreds of men, and took refuge 
with his broken troops in Puerto Cabello. The road to 
Caracas was now left open to the march of Bolivar's column, 
and, as the chief part of the Spanish forces had gone to 
encounter Ribas, the city capitulated without a blow being 
struck in its defence. 

On August 4, 1813, Bolivar made his triumphal entry amidst 
universal enthusiasm. Women came to crown their deliverer. 
They strewed the streets through which he was to pass with 
flowers and with branches of olive and bay. The joyful cries 
of thousands of spectators were mingled with the roar of 
artillery, the carillons of church-bells, and the strains of brass 
bands. The prisons were opened, and the hapless victims 
of tyranny came forth with pale, haggard faces, like spectres 
issuing from a tomb, into the midst of the joyous crowd. It 
is a glorious fact for freedom's cause that in the hour of 
victory no act of vengeance was perpetrated on the Spanish 
oppressors. They were permitted to hide themselves away 
from the demonstrations of public joy in recovered liberty 
and from the exulting looks of those whom they had wronged. 

The solid benefit of this success to the national cause now 
appeared in the adhesion of many Spaniards, including even 
monks and priests, and in the stir among the llaneros of the 
Orinoco valley, who came with offers of money and of horses, 
mules, and horned cattle in large numbers. These men 
became valuable auxiliaries of the patriots, and merit some 
description. The llaneros, or men of the llanos, the great 
sandy and grassy plains or savannahs in the north-east of the 
continent of South America, were half- wild m'etiSy or people 



Zhc Xlanetos in tbe aftelt) 135 

of mixed Spanish and Indian blood. Born horsemen, 
accustomed from early youth to break in wild horses, their 
visage and character recalled the Tartars of the Asiatic steppes. 
Armed with a long lance, generally without sword or fire-arms, 
they had no regular uniform, no boots or shoes. Ragged 
creatures, with no likeness to soldiers in dress except in a sort 
of wide trousers like those of Mamelukes, they carried a mania 
or kind of blanket, and a hammock. Brave, active, unweary- 
ing, their method of fighting resembled that of the famous 
Cossacks of the Don, in attacking the foe with loud cries, never 
in regular battle-array. Surrounding the enemy on all sides, 
they gave way before charges, fleeing only to reform and attack 
afresh. Their value was largely shown in the harassing 
pursuit of detachments, and the cutting off of stragglers. 
Their native savagery was displayed in the plunder of wounded 
men and the slaughter of prisoners. Among the stoutest 
adherents of the patriotic cause were the Margaritans, or men 
of the island of Margarita. Brave as the llaneros, but civilised 
and humane, these hearty republicans were an industrious 
and hospitable race. Their courage was conspicuous in the 
revolutionary war, and they were never subdued by the royalists 
after the first outbreak. 

While Bolivar was engaged in western Venezuela, his 
colleague Marino had freed the eastern part of the country 
from the royalists, and the whole of the territory was held by 
the patriots, except Puerto Cabello. The ladies of Venezuela, 
in their first joy for regained liberty, were lavish in presents of 
their jewels for the service of the new state ; and these 
resources were largely employed in the purchase of arms and 
munitions of war abroad. There was, however, less capacity 
for business than enthusiasm and material resources at the 
disposal of Bolivar. Having appointed a ministry of four chief 
officials — ministers of the interior (home-secretary), justice, 
finance, and war — he himself had to direct them in all affairs 
with decisions from which there was no appeal. 



136 ibero patriots 

In August 1813 Bolivar sent a body of troops to besiege 
the castle of Puerto Cabello, to which, as we have seen, the 
Spanish general Monteverde fled after his defeat by Ribas. 
The garrison was at this moment reinforced by the arrival of 
thirteen hundred men from Cadiz, who reached the place on 
five transports carrying also a large amount of arms and 
ammunition. The loss of Colonel Giraldat, the commander 
of the patriots besieging the fortress, by a musket-shot in one 
of the garrison's sorties, caused a panic which ended in the 
raising of the siege and the abandonment of all the artillery, 
ammunition, and baggage. Monteverde then sallied forth to 
attack the revolutionists, and encountered them at a village 
called Naguanagua, a few miles from Valencia. After once 
repulsing the enemy he was severely wounded, and his forces 
were then put to flight. The troops newly arrived from Spain, 
who were in the rear, were then driven back to Puerto-Cabello ; 
and this event was followed by several actions with much loss 
on each side but no important result. 

A change in the fortunes of the war was at hand. On 
January 2, 1814, after pacifying Venezuela, Bolivar came 
before the National Assembly to give account of his conduct, 
and to lay down his absolute power. He was requested to 
retain it until the day for a general peace arrived. That day 
was yet distant. The Spaniards, beaten at nearly all points 
in the field, now strove by every means to weary out the 
patriots, to regain the upper hand, and to prevent republican 
institutions from becoming settled. The country was covered, 
at their instance, with bands of slaves and brigands, and 
carnage and devastation were spread far and wide. A capable 
man as leader was found in the Spanish general Boves. A 
new army, composed of slaves, of vagabond men of colour, 
and of released prisoners, had been raised by him and skilfully 
trained for warfare. Morales was second in command of 
these troops, who were styled by the Spaniards themselves 
"The Infernal Division." Their march could be traced in 



defeats of patriots 137 

every direction by cruelties of the utmost atrocity. On 
December 13, 18 13, at Calabozo, Boves, with only five hun- 
dred men, defeated the patriot general Marino, who had 
double his force. The victor, acting as a partisan who did 
not recognise the authority of Monteverde, took active 
measures to increase his forces, levying taxes and "extra- 
ordinary contributions " wherever he went, under threats of 
" fire and sword " for refusal. He organised a warfare of 
guerillas, who procured for him money, men, horses, and 
mules, and gained several minor actions over the patriotic 
forces. 

In 1 8 14 the bold and active Boves still gained ground. 
Starting from Calabozo on February 1, with six hundred foot 
and fifteen hundred horse, he surprised the advance-guard of 
the republican army at Flores, and cut them to pieces. After 
the defeat of another body he slew all his prisoners. Being 
wounded in this action, he established his headquarters at 
Cura, and sent out two columns to march on Caracas, the 
capital of Venezuela. On February 12, Boves, who was again 
in the field, was smartly beaten by General Ribas near Valencia, 
and then Bolivar, on February 19, taking up the campaign 
in person, gathered all possible forces at Valencia, and marched 
on San Mateo, while a little squadron of armed boats and of 
transports bearing troops coasted along the shores of the 
lovely lake of Valencia, to protect the plantations of tobacco 
in that region. Boves, marching to meet Bolivar at San 
Mateo, took possession of the heights surrounding the town, 
in the hope of being there attacked. This failing, he made a 
pretended retreat into the valley, and tempted forward some 
of the republicans, without orders from Bolivar, into an 
ambuscade. In the end, the patriots were thoroughly beaten, 
and Bolivar and some of his officers had to gallop for their 
lives. A large number of Boves' forces then besieged La 
Guayra, and the patriot general Piar, proceeding to its relief, 
routed the enemy with the loss of four hundred men and 



138 Ifoero patriots 

raised the siege. In June 1814 Boves left Calabozo to 
encounter Bolivar again in the plains of La Puerta. On 
the 14th he attacked and defeated him and his colleague 
Marino near Cura, sixty miles south-west of Caracas, slaying 
or taking about fifteen hundred men, and capturing seven 
guns and all the baggage. Bolivar retreated hastily towards 
Caracas, while the victor hanged a colonel taken in the battle 
and shot more than sixty other officers. Boves went from 
success to success, blockading Valencia, raising the siege of 
Puerto Cabello, entering the fortress on July 1, and, in the 
end, forcing the evacuation of Caracas and La Guayra. 

Bolivar, after his defeat by Boves, betook himself to New 
Granada, in support of the patriotic cause. It was in the 
hour of disaster that the greatness of the hero-patriot shone 
forth in fullest lustre. He alone, undaunted by reverses, 
was engaged in devising means to repair them, and to 
profit by the hatred which Spanish cruelty had inspired 
in all quarters. At Tunja, where the Congress of New 
Granada was in session, the Venezuelan leader received the 
command of an expedition against the city of Santa Fe de 
Bogota, in order to compel the adhesion of the province to 
the federation of New Granada and to end the divisions 
which were crippling patriotic action. Early in December 
1 8 14 he marched with about two thousand men, invested the 
city, stormed the suburbs, and forced a surrender of the 
hostile party of republicans. The government of New 
Granada was then established at Bogota. 

The cause of freedom was to sink lower yet before revival. 
In 1 815 Ferdinand VII. of Spain, the cruel and per- 
fidious tyrant already seen in these pages as the executioner 
of the noble guerilla chieftain Martin Diaz, resolved to put 
an end to the movement for independence which had, in 
various forms, been for five years disturbing the whole of 
Spanish America. In March, there arrived from Spain, under 
General Morillo, borne on ships of war and fifty transports, a 



jfurtfoer Spantsb Successes 139 

force of twelve thousand men, several times larger than all 
the scattered bands of patriots, if they were put together, 
then under arms. The landing was made at Puerto Cabello, 
and the Spanish general, with his irresistible army, was enabled 
to seize with great rapidity the different places lying between 
the vast deserts of Casanare and the unhealthy coast-lands 
near Santa Marta and Cartagena, from the mouth of the Atrato 
and the port of San-Buenaventura to the foot of the mountains 
rising behind Popayan. The capture of Cartagena occupied 
Morillo during a siege of four months. Bolivar had failed 
to regain Santa Marta, on the Colombian coast, north-east 
of Cartagena, and in May 1815 he embarked for Kingston, 
Jamaica, to await a new opportunity for useful action. 

We will now briefly trace the proceedings of Morillo, and 
see the benignant methods by which the Spaniards strove to 
regain the allegiance of the revolted colonists. Writing as 
we are at the very end of the nineteenth century, when 
Spain, in her loss of Cuba and the Philippines, has become, 
as it seems, a " dying power," we may note here some of the 
causes of her great colonial failures. After his capture of 
Cartagena, Morillo marched without opposition to Bogota, 
the capital of New Granada, his progress being marked by 
devastation and ruin. An intercepted dispatch to his sovereign 
contains these words : — " Every person of either sex who was 
capable of reading and writing was put to death. By thus 
cutting off all persons of any education, I hope to arrest the 
spirit of revolution." During 18 16, the Spanish general 
pursued his conquering course, and wrought cruelties of 
vengeance exceeding, if possible, those of the two preceding 
years. When he took the wealthy town of Maturin, in 
Venezuela, near the delta of the Orinoco, he was dissatisfied 
with the amount of plunder, and suspected that rich persons 
had buried their valuables. In order to extract information 
by torture, he cut off the soles of the feet of many persons 
and then had them driven over hot sand, The evidence 



140 1bero patriots 

for this abomination is that of eye-witnesses ; and the same 
kind of testimony, in another town, proves that women had 
ears and noses cut off, eyes torn from their sockets, their 
tongues cut out, and the soles of their feet pared by the 
orders of the Spanish general Monteverde. These ferocious 
proceedings were far from taming the " spirit of revolution," 
and Morillo himself was obliged to confess that his victories 
over the revolutionists "had not lowered their pride or 
lessened the vigour of their attacks." The Margaritans, 
after long enduring the daily butchering and quartering of 
their wives, children, and other kindred, and beholding the 
members of their dearest relatives exposed on the trees and 
crags of their native forests and mountains, turned furiously 
to bay. In the end, when the Spaniards were overcome, a 
British officer, serving under the flag of Venezuela, saw more 
than seven thousand Spanish skulls dried and heaped together 
in one place, fitly termed Golgotha, as a trophy of victory. 
Each skull showed the deep cuts of the long sabre-shaped 
knife called a machete, used both for cutting sugar-cane and 
for slaying foes. We return to the fortunes of Simon Bolivar. 
Up to this point the deliverer had not accomplished the 
deeds upon which his enduring fame is based. He had, 
however, made himself formidable to the Spaniards by his 
zeal and determination in the revolutionary cause. They saw 
in him the soul of the revolt. They knew well that, if he 
were removed, if his patriotism and energy were quenched 
in death, there was no man who could replace him, none 
who had the power of focussing for action the scattered rays 
of revolutionary fire. Failing other methods, the Spanish 
foes of Bolivar had recourse to the assassin's dagger. A spy 
was sent to Jamaica to track the movements of the hated 
man, and a negro was then employed to murder him in his 
bed. By mistake, the weapon plunged into the breast of a 
sleeper in his hammock slew Bolivar's secretary instead of 
himself, The negro was caught, condemned, and hanged at 



Bolivar's 3BOI& Conduct 141 

Kingston, and Bolivar made his way to Haiti (or Santo 
Domingo), where he received a warm welcome from the 
president of that negro republic. He had been long medita- 
ting a return to the scene of warfare, and he now secured the 
valuable aid of a warm friend of freedom, Luis Brion, a very 
wealthy Dutch shipbuilder. This excellent man fitted-out 
seven schooners and placed them at Bolivar's disposal, also 
furnishing three thousand muskets for the cause to which he 
now devoted his own life and service. 

A small body of refugee patriots was gathered, and in 
December 1816 the little expedition made for the island of 
Margarita, which had been wrested from the Spaniards by 
a patriot force under Arismendi. The Venezuelan war was 
thus renewed. Bolivar had, at first, only three hundred men, 
but leader and followers were the equals of Leonidas and 
his Spartans in courage and in patriotism, as they were in 
number. The commander of the little army issued a procla- 
mation summoning representatives of Venezuela to a general 
congress, and then he and his men passed over to Barcelona, on 
the mainland, about one hundred and sixty miles east of Caracas. 
A " provisional government " was established, and the vessels 
were all set on fire as the first step in a contest which was meant, 
by the adventurous band, to terminate in conquest or in death. 
This action of the hero had an electrical effect. At the time 
of his landing the cause of freedom was represented only by 
a few scattered bodies of men along the banks of the Orinoco, 
on the plains of Barcelona and of Casanare. These small 
groups kept up a kind of guerilla warfare, without any regular 
plan or combined action, and were only held together by the 
fact that submission would have meant for them immediate 
slaughter. As soon as Bolivar's daring attempt became known, 
troops flocked to his standard from every place of refuge, 
and a general rush to arms was made by patriots in spite of 
the savage persecution to which their families were subjected, 
and the laying waste of their estates. One of the foremost 



i42 1bero patriots 

aiders of the patriotic cause was the leader of llaneros, Paez, 
an owner of herds of half-wild cattle. This brave and able 
commander headed an army of herdsmen on the banks of 
the Apure, a tributary of the Orinoco, and became, at a later 
time, president of the republic of Venezuela. 

Bolivar soon had to make preparations to resist Morillo, 
who was advancing with a strong force. The campaign of 
1 817 opened, for the good cause, in the most fortunate way. 
In February, after three days of continuous and desperate 
conflict, Bolivar was victorious, and drove back Morillo's men 
in disorder. During his retreat, the royalist general was 
encountered and again worsted by Paez and his llaneros. 
Now recognised as supreme leader, Bolivar had more 
successes in the field, and before the close of the year (181 7) 
he had made his headquarters at Angostura, on the right 
bank of the Orinoco, about two hundred and forty miles up 
the river from the sea. 

The year 18 18 was marked, for the revolutionists, by 
brilliant, swift, and decisive success. In less than seven 
weeks, Bolivar swept across three hundred leagues of country. 
In six days, on February 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, he fought five 
regular battles, and almost every day of the campaign saw a 
minor action. The losses were great on both sides, but victory 
remained faithful to the "Liberator." On November 10, the 
patriot government declared the independence of the republic 
as a free and sovereign state, which would not treat with 
Spain except on equal terms, as one power with another. 

The year 18 19 was filled with military and political events 
of great importance. On February 15 a congress was opened 
at Angostura, and Bolivar was at once invested with supreme 
power until the independence of the country should be 
secured. The struggle for freedom and the success of the 
patriots had aroused attention and enthusiasm in Europe, 
and the Venezuelan leader's army now included a " British 
legion," comprising artillery, lancers, rifles, and hussars, 



bolivar's Campaign of 18X9 143 

officered by British and German veterans set free from 
service after the close of the great war with Napoleon. An 
" Irish legion " included a son of another famous " Liberator," 
Daniel O'Connell. The Spanish general, Morillo, had twice 
received reinforcements from Europe, and reappeared in the 
field. It is impossible to give here the details of the con- 
tinuous and complicated operations. At all points of need 
Bolivar, with largely augmented forces, showed himself with 
generally victorious energy and zeal, and the cause of the 
royalists was brought, in Venezuela, in the open field, to the 
verge of ruin. 

In the early summer Bolivar conceived a brilliant plan of 
campaign in a new region, with a view to complete ultimate 
success in his native country. He resolved to invade New 
Granada, and, after success against the enemy in the west, to 
return in irresistible force and with fresh fame to Venezuela. 
The enterprise was one of the most arduous and daring 
kind. It involved the crossing of some of the very difficult 
Cordilleras, the successive parallel ranges of the Andes which 
fill the north-western corner of South America. His colleague, 
General Santander, was already in the province of Casanare, 
at the eastern foot of the Cordilleras, and had been strengthened 
by Bolivar with a supply of arms and a body of experienced 
foreign officers. He was thus enabled to reinforce his army 
by recruits from scattered bands of patriots in the Casanare 
plains. Santander thereupon marched towards the frontier 
of New Granada, and drew to himself the attention of the 
royalist general Barreiro, who held the command in that 
region. Barreiro's advancing columns were repulsed by the 
patriots, and it was the tidings of this success which mainly 
induced Bolivar's bold conception. In full confidence of 
success, he issued a proclamation to the people of New 
Granada, predicting freedom for them within a year — " before 
the sun has again run his annual course " — and he at once 
started from Cumana on his adventurous campaign. On 



144 Ifoero patriots 

June n he joined Santander at the foot of the Andes. His 
own army had already, during its passage over the vast plain 
inundated at that season, crossed seven deep rivers with a 
large encumbrance of war-munitions. The force numbered 
only two thousand five hundred men, including four battalions 
of infantry, one being entirely English, two squadrons of 
lancers, one of carabineers, and a body of soldiers styled the 
" Guides of the Apure," composed partly of Paez's llaneros 
and partly of English horsemen. 

The vanguard of the expedition was made up of Santander's 
men, and the route taken through the mountain passes led to 
the centre of the province of Tunja, in New Granada, where 
Barreiro had a force of two thousand infantry and four 
hundred horse. There were other considerable bodies of 
royalist troops in reserve, but the "Liberator" trusted to 
the effect of surprise and to the enthusiastic support which 
he would receive from the people of the territory that he was 
invading on behalf of freedom. As the army came in sight 
of the snow-capped eastern Cordilleras, the men beheld huge 
cascades tumbling from the heights. As the ascent began, 
the roads led along the edge of precipices, and were bordered 
on the other side by huge trees whose tops were in clouds 
that sent down constant showers. The difficulties of this 
famous march had only begun. In four days' time the horses 
were worn out, and a squadron of llaneros, deeming them- 
selves unfit for walking, as men who had passed their lives 
on horseback, deserted their comrades. The adventurous 
troops frequently found their way barred by torrents. These 
obstacles were crossed either on tree-trunks that shook with 
every tread, or on hanging bridges of stout hide-ropes lashed 
to trees on opposite banks, and well greased for the con- 
veyance of " cradles " holding two men, which were drawn 
to and fro by long lines. Mules were taken over, hanging 
by girths. Many streams were forded ; but this was only done, 
against the force of strong currents, by pairs of men with 



passage ot tfoe Corbilleras us 

arms interlocked around each other's shoulders. The heroic 
Bolivar frequently passed and re-passed these mountain- 
streams on horseback, with a sick or weakly man behind his 
saddle. 

In the higher regions, nothing met the view except piles of 
huge rocks and masses of snow, with the clouds lying below 
and hiding from view gorges of prodigious depth. The warm, 
moist air of the foot-hills was now succeeded by wind of 
piercing cold that reached the skin through the thickest 
clothing. The only sounds were the roar of the torrents in 
the rear and the scream of the condor, the huge vulture of 
the Andes, soaring far above the highest clouds. In the 
midst of this dreary magnificence of scenery, the cattle which 
had formed the chief food-supply of the army were worn out 
with fatigue, and it was needful to slaughter them and carry 
the half-frozen meat. At the summit of the mountains, in 
the Paya pass, the first fighting occurred. Barreiro's outpost 
of three hundred men, which ought to have ruined the whole 
enterprise, was easily " shifted," in the phrase of the modern 
British linesman, by the vanguard under Santander. At this 
point, the hardihood of the rank-and-file of the little army 
seemed about to fail. There was murmuring which Bolivar met 
by calling a council of war. He appealed to his officers' sense 
of honour and love of freedom. "He would hide nothing 
from them. In front there were, in all likelihood, difficulties 
and perils beyond any which they had yet encountered. 
Would they go on, or abandon the struggle ? " " Forward ! " 
was the brave cry in response, and the wearied soldiers were 
then ready to follow with renewed zeal. 

On July 6 a mere remnant of the force arrived in the 
beautiful valley of Sagamoso, in the province of Tunja. 
During the terrible passage of the mountains, one hundred 
men, including fifty Englishmen, had died of cold. The store 
of spare arms, and many of those borne by the soldiers, had 
been perforce abandoned. While the troops halted to recruit 

10 



146 ifoero patriots 

their strength, Bolivar sent back mules to gather in stragglers 
left behind, collected horses as remounts for the cavalry-men, 
and sent out scouts to bring in reinforcements from the New 
Granadan guerillas who were still in the field. Strangely 
enough, General Barreiro was utterly ignorant of the invasion. 
Either the men of his outpost in the Paya pass had all been 
slain, or the survivors had failed to convey information. The 
royalist leader had not dreamed of the possibility of an army 
passing the Cordilleras at that season. When his enemy's 
presence in New Granada became known, Barreiro occupied 
the heights overlooking the plain of Varga, between the 
advancing patriots and the town of Tunja. The people there 
were strong supporters of the revolutionary cause, and Bolivar's 
first object was to capture the place and obtain recruits and 
supplies. On July 25 a five-hours' battle ended in the 
defeat of the royalists, a result mainly due to the charges of 
the English infantry under Colonel James Rooke, who lost 
an arm in the action. The Spanish forces were still in good 
strength, and Bolivar resorted to the stratagem of retreat, 
with a swift return at night along by-roads which took him 
to the rear of the enemy. On August 5 he entered Tunja, 
where he obtained abundant stores of war. His skilful 
manoeuvre had almost cut ofT Barreiro and his army from 
Santa Fe de Bogota, the capital of New Granada. Bolivar's 
generalship on this occasion was characteristic of the man, 
whose genius disdained the ordinary methods of warfare, and 
completely baffled the adherents of routine by his sudden 
appearance in force at unexpected and unguarded points. 
The Spanish general then made his way to Boyaca, a little 
distance from Tunja towards Bogota, and the chief battle of 
the revolutionary war was there fought on August 17, 18 19. 
The mountainous and wooded region was exactly fit for 
Bolivar's style of fighting on this glorious day of deliverance 
for New Granada. When the battle was begun, his army 
showed only a contracted line to the foe, who believed that 



Bolivar's 6ranfc Success 147 

victory was, for them, assured. The fact was that a large 
part of the patriot leader's troops were in ambush on the 
flanks, and his cavalry had shut in the Spanish rear. At 
the royalist attack, Bolivar's small visible force gave way in 
a pretended panic, and the pursuing Spaniards were then 
furiously assailed on both sides by the troops who rushed 
from their places of concealment, while the cavalry swept 
down on the rear-ranks. Barreiro, flinging away his sword 
to avoid its surrender to the victor, was captured on the field, 
with his second-in-command and almost all the officers of 
every rank, and more than sixteen hundred men. All the 
guns, muskets, horses, and ammunition became the prize of 
war, and hardly fifty men, chiefly mounted officers, escaped 
from the field. They were all, however, ultimately brought 
in as prisoners by the armed peasantry of the district. This 
splendid success, partly due to the courage of the English 
auxiliaries, who were all made members of the " Order of the 
Liberator," cost the victors only thirteen men slain and fifty- 
three wounded. 

The road was now open to Bogota, which Bolivar entered 
amid a scene of the wildest rejoicing. The Spanish officials 
had fled in dismay on the news of the victory, and the first 
step was the restoration of order and the establishment of a 
new government. The Venezuelan hero was at once appointed 
President and Captain-General of the Republic of New 
Granada, and was enabled, by new resources of men, money, 
and munitions of war, to prepare for his return to his native 
country with an army ready for the complete expulsion of 
the Spaniards. 

Bolivar's entry into Angostura, after his glorious campaign 
beyond the Cordilleras, was a very gratifying and touching 
spectacle. The whole population gave him a rapturous 
welcome as the liberator and father of his country. In 
December, 1819 under his auspices, Venezuela and New 
Granada were united as the " Republic of Colombia." One 



148 Ifoero patriots 

man only could be the president, and he was elected to the 
office. The year 1820 was one of warfare which, with successes 
for the patriots, would have been more advantageous for them 
but for the dissensions which gave much trouble to the new 
ruler. In November, a six-months' armistice was arranged 
between Bolivar and Morillo, at the request of the Spaniards, 
and negotiations were begun with a view to terms of settled 
peace. Morillo shortly afterwards left for Spain, leaving the 
command to La Torre. Bolivar soon found that the Spanish 
government obstinately adhered to the old principles of rule, 
and rightly suspected that they were only seeking to gain 
time for the gathering of fresh forces, with a view to new 
attacks on the republican armies. He had offered to lay 
down his presidential rule, declaring himself to be " a child 
of the camp, whom battle had brought to civil power and 
fortune had there maintained. The power confided to him 
was," he said, " dangerous in a popular government. He 
preferred the title of ' soldier,' and, in leaving the president's 
chair, he only sought to deserve the credit of being a good 
citizen." This offer of Bolivar's was not, of course, accepted 
by his fellow-citizens ; and when he became fully aware of the 
treacherous purpose of the Spaniards in seeking a truce, and 
of the counsels that prevailed at Madrid, he announced the 
resumption of hostilities. 

Bolivar had already made great efforts to gather forces for 
a decisive blow, and, after manoeuvring the enemy out of 
certain positions, he made his entry into Maracaybo on 
January 28, 182 1 ; reduced the formidable fortress of Carta- 
gena ; took Teneriffe, a town on the steep banks of the 
Magdalena ; captured Cunega, in the hill-country ; and, 
finally, stormed Santa Marta, with its seventeen batteries of 
external defence. Still hotly pressing the foe, he fought on 
June 25 the memorable battle of Carabobo, in the north of 
Venezuela, where he utterly defeated La Torre. On June 30 
he captured La Guayra, while his lieutenant generals, under 



^Bolivar in Peru 149 

his guidance, fought successfully at Cumana and at every 
point where they displayed the republican yellow flag with 
seven stars. Bolivar, early in July, entered Caracas, amid 
the usual demonstrations of rejoicing, as a conqueror who 
had now, for the third time, freed his native city from the 
oppressor. By the close of the year 182 1 the Spaniards had 
been driven from every point of Colombia (then New Granada 
and Venezuela, we must remember) except the fortress of 
Puerto Cabello. In August, permanent political institutions 
had been established in a congress held at Bogota, with 
Bolivar as president and General Santander as vice-president. 
We may here mention that it was not until July 1824 that 
the country was finally cleared of the royalist troops. 

The contest was now carried by the Spaniards into Peru, 
and in 1822 Bolivar, having practically achieved the inde- 
pendence of his own country and of New Granada, placed 
himself at the head of a new liberating army, and marched 
into the territory which is now Ecuador. In June a victory, 
due to the skill and valour of General Sucre, was gained at 
Pichincha, a little north of the city of Quito, and the Quito 
province and Ecuador were added to Colombia. Bolivar 
then marched on Lima, the capital of Peru, which was 
evacuated by the Spaniards, and entered it on September 1, 
amidst the usual acclamations. He was invested forthwith 
with supreme political and military authority. The people 
regarded him as a modern specimen of the antique hero of 
Greece or Rome, and he was assuredly worthy of their 
enthusiastic homage. He declared, in a proclamation, that 
" he gratefully accepted the honours rendered to him, as the 
due of the brave men under his command. He assumed 
the ' odious dictatorial authority ' in order to make an end of 
civil discord, and to give stability and strength to the new 
states, but only on the express condition that no usurper like 
Napoleon should, under any circumstances, be allowed, in 
the name of freedom, to destroy that freedom which we have 



iso Utero patriots 

gained at so high a price in blood, and to confiscate, to his 
own profit, the glory of our citizen-soldiers." It is grievous to 
relate that Bolivar was soon compelled, by internal dissensions, 
to retire to Truxillo, on the coast to the north of Lima, and 
that the Peruvian capital was reoccupied by the Spanish 
troops. Towards the close of 1823 the Liberator, at the 
head of fresh forces, was able to re-enter Lima, where he 
addressed the National Congress of Peru in a speech which 
promised that " the soldiers from the Plate, the Magdalena, 
and the Orinoco should conquer and leave Peru free, or die." 
The independence of South America was then cemented in 
the confederation of the republics of Peru, Chili, Buenos 
Ayres, and Rio de la Plata, and recognised by Great Britain 
and the United States. There was, however, to be more 
bloodshed before the final establishment of peace. 

In June 1824 the "Deliverer" took the field with ten 
thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry, making his 
head-quarters at Truxillo, and moving southwards to meet 
the enemy. The Spanish forces included about three thou- 
sand five hundred men at Cuzco under Laserna, the Viceroy 
of Peru; six thousand five hundred at Arequipa and Jauja 
under General Canterac, and one thousand away in the south 
under General Valdez, who soon had to move northwards to 
assist his comrades. The nearest Spanish force to Bolivar 
was that of Canterac, and it was highly efficient in discipline 
and equipment. The cavalry and artillery were specially 
good. On August 2 a striking spectacle was seen in Bolivar's 
review of his army on the tableland between Rancas and 
Pasco, a little north of Reyes, at a height of twelve thousand 
feet above sea-level, on ground overlooked from east and 
west by the sublime peaks of the Andes and the Cordilleras 
stretching away towards Brazil. The force included veteran 
French and British soldiers who had fought in the great 
European war on the soil of Spain, France, and Russia. An 
address of stirring eloquence from the chief, read at the same 



Wctot£ of patriots 151 

moment to each corps, bade them complete the great work of 
"saving a world from slavery." " Soldiers ! " were the words, 
" Peru and America expect from you Peace, the daughter of 
Victory. Liberal Europe beholds you with delight, because 
the freedom of the New World is the hope of the universe. 
Will you disappoint it ? No ! no ! you are invincible." 

Canterac was, meanwhile, marching northwards to meet 
Bolivar. Between the two there lay a lake, and the armies, 
advancing respectively to north and south on the opposite 
sides, missed each other, and so delayed the expected collision 
for the space of four months. Detachments met on the plain 
of Junin, to the south of the lake, and in a cavalry action, 
where not a shot was fired but only the lance and sabre were 
employed, the royalists were thoroughly beaten, with the 
loss of nineteen officers and nearly three hundred and fifty 
men killed and wounded, and eighty prisoners. The victorious 
patriots lost only three officers and forty-two troopers. The 
army of Bolivar, marching south towards Cuzco, met with no 
opposition, Canterac, with his force diminished by many 
desertions, having retreated in the same direction. In 
October Bolivar quitted the army, as he expected no further 
engagements in that year, and started for Lima to hasten 
forward reinforcements on the road from Colombia. It was 
during his absence that, on December 9, 1824, Bolivar's 
second-in-command, General Sucre, greatly aided by General 
Miller, a British soldier of high repute in that day, gained 
the glorious victory of Ayacucho, which practically ended 
the struggle. The royalists held nothing but the forts of 
Callao, where General Rodil held out until the beginning 
of 1826. 

On January 1, 1825, Bolivar laid down his dictatorship, 
and opposed the scheme for erecting an equestrian statue in 
his honour at Caracas. He bade the municipality " wait until 
after his death, in order to judge him without prejudice, and 
then accord to him whatever honours were thought suitable." 



152 ifoero patriots 

" Never raise monuments," he said, " to a man in his life- 
time ; he may change, he may betray. You will never have 
to charge me with this ; but wait, wait, I say again." In June 
he visited Upper Peru, which separated itself from the govern- 
ment of Buenos Ayres and became a new republic, styled 
Bolivia, in honour of the Liberator, who was declared "per- 
petual protector," and was requested to draw up a constitution. 
In May 1826 Bolivar had framed a scheme of government 
for Peru ; but many people were dissatisfied with his proposal 
of a president for life, as the irresponsible executive official, 
with the power of naming his successor. He then intrusted 
the government of the country to a council of his own 
choosing, and returned to Colombia to settle some disorders 
which had arisen between his supporters and those of an 
opposite faction. 

Few patriots have met with a worse return for priceless 
services than Bolivar. Treason and anarchy were to do for 
Peru what the fortune of arms had spared her — bring the 
country to disgrace. Before the dictator's return to Colombia, 
while he was visiting the south of Peru, his journey being 
one continued triumph of enthusiastic reception, the military 
leaders Cordova, Paez, and Santander raised the standard 
of rebellion. Bolivar hastened to every point where his 
presence was needed, and order was soon restored. Cordova 
died in fight near Antioquia ; Santander went into exile ; Paez 
and others were pardoned, in regard to past services on 
behalf of freedom. The royalist party, thus baffled, resorted 
to the vilest measures. On one occasion the weapons of 
some fanatics were turned against Bolivar's life. One night 
a traitor, with a dozen assassins at his back, entered the 
Liberator's tent ; but the intended victim escaped in his night- 
gear. On another occasion, his house was broken into, and 
the murderers reached his room, but they were driven off 
by his ready courage. His confidential servant was then 
gained over, and in open day his friend Monteagudo was 



iJBoltpar's (Breat Sims 1S3 

struck down, by mistake, at his side. After these escapes 
from the poignards of his foes, Bolivar was assailed by the 
shafts of calumny. He was accused of ambitious schemes 
for the sovereignty of South America ; and this charge was 
held to be confirmed by his summons of all the American 
nations to a grand congress at Tacubaya, on the Isthmus of 
Panama. Bolivar's real aim was the independence of all 
South America by the establishment, at a point in the centre 
of the globe, looking to Asia on one side and to Europe and 
Africa on the other, of a Supreme Court charged with watching 
over the interests of all Americans ; of faithfully guarding 
treaties ; of appealing to the whole union of states against 
foreign attack or oppression, or against any power which 
should dare to think of assailing the freedom of any particular 
state; of opposing all colonisation from outside, and of 
rendering an injury done to one of the federated states a 
wrong to all. 

During Bolivar's absence in Colombia, a movement against 
his measures arose in Peru, on the part of a division of the 
Colombian auxiliary army cantoned in the country. In 
January 1827 a revolution began. The Peruvians abjured 
the code of Bolivar, deposed his council of ministers, and 
organised a new provisional government. In March the 
third division of the Colombian troops embarked at Callao, 
and landed in the southern part of Colombia, where they 
occupied Guayaquil, Cuenca, and Quito. Their declared 
object was to restore constitutional order in opposition to 
any designs upon the republic entertained by Bolivar. The 
dictator was in the north of Colombia when he received news 
of these events. He instantly proceeded to the scene of 
trouble, but found that the revolted troops had already 
submitted peaceably to General Ovando, when they saw that 
the government was in the hands of the regular national 
executive. In September Bolivar went to Bogota, took the 
oaths as President, and assumed his functions. To appear- 



154 1bero patriots 

ance, Colombia was restored to tranquillity under the rule of 
her constitutional officials. The nation was, however, divided 
between two great parties, the constitutional or republican, 
and the military or dictatorial. 

In August 1828 Bolivar, by a decree issued at Bogota, 
assumed supreme power in all civil, military, naval, diplomatic, 
and judicial affairs, with a council of ministers to assist him 
in executive functions. The country was sorely troubled by 
dissension, and the dictator, ill-judged by many of his 
countrymen, and further wounded by the opinions held of 
him in the United States, was subjected to yet deeper griefs. 
General Sucre, the hero of Ayacucho, fell by an assassin's 
dagger. Paez, forgetting his solemn sworn promises, resorted 
again to revolt, and stirred up the passions of civil discord. 
Bolivar resolved to resign his supreme power, and in January 
1830 he issued a decree by which he retained only the title 
of " Commander-in-chief of the armies of Colombia." " In 
this capacity," he declared, "subject to the law like other 
citizens, with the least danger I shall be the defender of the 
government and of the republic, and I will overthrow every 
foe that dares to menace freedom." Even Bolivar, however, 
could not cope with the evils of civil strife. In May Venezuela 
declared her independence, and the same spirit of disaffection 
was shown in other provinces. He then resigned his military 
office, declaring in a letter addressed " To the Colombians," that 
" he had paid his debt to his native country and to humanity ; 
that he had given his blood, his health, and his fortune to 
the cause of freedom; that, while danger lasted, he had 
shown his devotion. He now withdrew into exile for the 
benefit of his fellow-citizens, and wished them farewell in 
giving this fresh proof of his patriotism and of his special love 
for the people of Colombia." 

On May 12 Bolivar withdrew from Bogota" to his country- 
seat of San Pedro, near Santa Marta. Not wishing to draw 
on the national treasury for his expenses of travel, he sold 



Bolivar's Beatb 155 

his last patrimonial possession, a mine at Sanna. He then 
started for Cartagena, whence he was to sail for Jamaica, 
and thence embark for Europe. The government, on receiving 
his letter, proclaimed him " the Foremost Citizen of Colombia," 
and offered him an annual pension of thirty thousand dollars, 
(about six thousand two hundred pounds) for life, " as a 
tribute of gratitude and admiration for his virtues, his courage, 
his eminent services, and the employment of his fortune for 
the good of his country." The Liberator, reluctant, as it 
seems, to quit his native soil, received this message at San 
Pedro, to which he had returned. The hero was, in fact, 
worn out with the fatigue of his patriotic toils. After some 
months of confusion in public affairs, Bolivar consented to 
resume the dictatorship, simply for the restoration of order 
and the holding of elections. At this juncture he was seized 
with a fatal fever, and he died on December 17, 1830, at 
his country-seat. Calmly resigned to death, he had per- 
formed his last public act on December n, in dictating 
and signing an address to the Colombian nation. Delirium 
then set in, with occasional lucid intervals, and thus he 
continued until his last hour, with no apparent anxiety save 
for the state of his country, which caused him to utter 
exclamations of "Union! union!" 

Among the great qualities of Simon Bolivar the foremost 
were his unselfishness and his energetic perseverance in pursuit 
of his chief aim in life. Far from seeking, as did many other 
so-called " patriots," to make his fortune out of revolution, 
he sacrificed his own patrimony in the cause of freedom. 
A landed proprietor and a slave-owner, he freed his negroes 
in order to make of them citizens and soldiers. A conqueror 
of wealthy provinces, he chose to be nothing but their deliverer 
and regenerator. President of Colombia, and dependent 
on his salary of about six thousand pounds a year, he bestowed 
one-half of this sum on the widows and orphans of his 
comrades in arms who had fallen in the war of independence. 



156 Ihcvo fcatriote 

He further aided from his private purse the work of the 
famous British educational reformer, Joseph Lancaster, when 
he sought to establish his new system in Colombia. Above 
all, it was to his determined resolution and his sustained effort, 
in the face of great difficulties, of defeat, and of disunion 
among the friends of freedom, that South America owed her 
deliverance from the colonial tyranny of Spain. Thrice over- 
whelmed, with his native land, by terrible reverses ; flung, 
a poor and proscribed man, on foreign shores ; pursued from 
island to island by the Spanish assassin armed with his deadly 
dagger; repaid for all his sacrifices and achievements by 
atrocious slanders — thrice did Bolivar return to the charge, 
to end by a noble triumph over private and public foes. 

As a general and warrior, Bolivar has been compared to 
the famous Roman Sertorius, the lowly-born Sabine who, in 
the first century before the Christian era, fought in Spain on 
the Marian side in the first great civil war of Rome. In some 
respects, as in the vast extent of his marches, in the obstacles 
which he had to surmount, in his devices for retaining small 
bodies of men under his banner and giving them a moral force 
which tripled their numbers ; in the boldness and swiftness 
of his movements — this distinguished man may be well 
compared, though not, of course, equalled, with the illustrious 
Hannibal, son of Hamilcar. As a statesman, it was the 
glory of Bolivar, aided by Zea and by Dr. Gual, to be the 
founder of Colombia as a new nation. Constantly engaged 
in developing and perfecting his work, his creative genius 
conceived one of the noblest and grandest schemes of modern 
times — the federal union of Colombia, Bolivia and Peru, 
the three states which owed their independence mainly 
to him. This great plan, which would have given pros- 
perity to all the states, was frustrated by internal dissension and 
corruption. Bolivar was, in fact, much too far ahead of his 
age in those regions of the world, where only a few superior 
souls could even comprehend what he desired to effect. 



Bolivar's if ante i 57 

Bolivar has been called, and with justice, the " Washington 
of South America," a title of glory which may well satisfy 
his admirers. He was the founder of three free nations. 
Alone, with little foreign help, at the head of a Catholic 
population brutalised by three centuries of political servitude, 
he did more, in one view, than Washington himself. The 
great North American patriot headed a Protestant people 
already enlightened and free ; a people guided by men like 
Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams ; a people powerfully aided 
by France, Spain, and Holland, then at war with Great 
Britain, the mother-country of the colonies in revolt. Never 
did Bolivar interfere with freedom save in the sacred interest 
of freedom herself. He was, for several nations, at the hour 
of their birth and in their infancy, the "man of necessity" 
who, in American revolutions, was wanting in Mexico, in 
Guatemala, in Chili, and in Buenos Ayres ; the man, in default 
of whose like those beautiful regions were scourged by anarchy 
and civil war. Thrice invested with dictatorial power by the 
confidence of his fellow-citizens, thrice did Bolivar lay it down 
on the altar of his country, reserving only a power salutary for 
the freedom which he had won. 

Bolivar was, according to his own desire, his own injunction, 
judged by his fellow-citizens after his death. The decision of 
posterity in his own land, during the century whose third 
decade brought the end of his career, is not likely to be 
reversed. In 1842, his remains were removed, with great 
pomp, to Caracas, where a monument has been erected 
in honour of " El LibertadorP Statues have been raised to 
him at Bogota, Lima, and New York. In 1883 the centenary 
of his birth was celebrated with much enthusiasm at Caracas, 
the proceedings, which were spread over forty days, being 
attended by representatives of sixteen foreign states. 



CHAPTER V 

ABD-EL-KADER 

1833— 1847 

Abd-el-Kader, a Truly Great Mohammedan— Eulogy by Marshal Soult — 
His Grand Position in Nineteenth Century — Birth and Early Life — 
Precocious Ability — His Father's High Character — The Hero in 
Early Manhood— His Personal Appearance — Equestrian Skill — 
High Reputation among Arabs of Algeria — Pilgrimage to Mecca — 
Returns to Algeria (1828) — A Period of Religious Seclusion — 
Description of Algeria — The People — The Kabyles — Cause of 
Quarrel with France — Turkish Mode of Rule — Application of Arab 
Patriots to Mahhi-ed-Din — The Rising against the French Invaders 
— Defeat of French under General Bourmont — Abd-el-Kader in 
Council — His First Action with French — His Marvellous Courage — 
A Leader needed for Arabs — Abd-el-Kader chosen — His Reception 
at Mascara — Grand Review of Arab Warriors — Abd-el-Kader's 
Measures and Way of Life — Conflicts with the French under 
General Desmichels — Abd-el-Kader subdues Native Opponents — 
He again defeats Desmichels — Further Arab Success — Desmichels 
makes Treaty with the Sultan — His Conflicts with Disaffected Arabs 
— Enforces Submission — Organises Government of Oran — Spread of 
his Fame and Power — Count D'Erlon as New French Governor- 
General — Abd-el-Kader's Skilful Diplomacy — His Defeats of General 
Trezel at the Sig and the Macta — D'Erlon recalled — Succeeded by 
Marshal Clausel — The New Governor-General's Proclamation — 
Abd-el-Kader's First Success against Clausel — The Sultan's Defeat — 
Meeting with his Mother — Tribes rally round Abd-el-Kader — His 
Noble Spirit — He defeats Clausel — The Sultan's Marvellous Energy 
— Fierce Courage of his Men — French General Bugeaud's Victory at 
the Sikkah — Abd-el-Kader's New System of Warfare — Clausel again 
Governor-General — Harassed by Sultan — Abd-el-Kader makes with 
Bugeaud the "Treaty of the Tafna " — A Triumph for the Sultan — His 
Success over Hostile Tribes — His Political Work in 1839 — His Great 
IS8 



Hb&*eMkaber's ffame 159 

Fame — His Grand Ideal for the Arabs — Adhesion of the Kabyles — 
Renewed Warfare with French — The New Governor-General, 
Marshal Valee — His Base Treachery — Abd-el-Kader takes the Field 
— Conflict in the Mountains — The French Victorious — The Sultan 
returns to Irregular Warfare — The French severely harassed — 
Arrival of General Bugeaud — His New System of Warfare — His 
Able Subordinates — The Campaign of 1841 — Abd-el-Kader's Skilful 
Movements — Campaign of 1842 — Indecisive Results — French gaining 
Ground slowly — The Sultan forms his Smala — His Kindly Deeds — 
The Bishop of Algiers — Abd-el-Kader's Treatment of Captives — The 
Capture and Dispersal of the Smala — A Terrible Blow — The Hero 
Struggles on — His Wonderful Courage — Appeals to British Govern- 
ment — The Sultan declines the Throne of Morocco — Campaigns of 
1844 and 1845 — Marshal Bugeaud again in Field — His System of 
Warfare — Abd-el-Kader's Movements — Campaign of 1846 — The 
Sultan in Morocco — Decline of his Cause — French Eulogy of a Great 
Man — Campaign of 1 847 — Sultan defeats Moroccan Forces — His 
Return to Algeria — Surrenders himself to Lamoriciere — Sent to 
France — Violation of French Pledge — End of Abd-el-Kader's Public 
Career — His Grand Character — Four Years' Imprisonment in France 
— Louis Napoleon's Efforts on his Behalf — The ex-Sultan insists on 
Fulfilment of French Promise — His Life in Captivity — Released by 
Louis Napoleon — His Reception in Paris — Leaves France for Broussa 
— Visits France — Settles at Damascus — His Noble Conduct in i860 
— Abd-el-Kader's Decorations from European Powers — Receives 
Letter from Schamyl — Visits Mecca and Medina — In Paris and 
England — His Death (1883) — Marvellous Character of his Career. 

THE two supreme products of Mohammedanism, in the 
warrior class, the one in mediaeval, the other in modern 
days — the two highest types of the chivalry of Islam — have 
been, beyond all question, Saladin and Abd-el-Kader. In 
regard to the modern hero, we quote the testimony of a 
distinguished Frenchman, himself a soldier of renown and 
a fair representative of one of the most powerful nations in 
the world, whose forces were, during fourteen years, kept in 
check by one of the subjects of his eulogy. In 1843 
Marshal Soult, the most eminent, on the whole, of Napoleon's 
lieutenants, declared, in conversation with a friend that, " At 
the present time, the world can show only three men to 



160 toero patriots 

whom the epithet ' great ' can be properly applied. These 
men all belong to Islam ; their names are Abd-el-Kader, 
Mehemet Ali, and Schamyl." The French commander, one 
of Wellington's ablest antagonists in the Peninsular War, was 
referring, of course, to men of the governing and warlike 
type. Of these three men, who all displayed the originality 
and initiative which are proper marks of genius, two, the 
first and the last, have been chosen in this work as representa- 
tives of the hero-patriots of the nineteenth century. We 
have now to deal with the first, the illustrious man whose 
abbreviated name, " Abd-el-Kader," means " servant of the 
Mighty God," a man who combined all the virtues of the old 
Arabs with some of the best results of modern civilisation. 

Abd-el-Kader was one of the most extraordinary men and 
the finest characters of the century in which he played his 
part. His career affords matter of the highest interest for all 
who have any enthusiasm for what is romantic and ennobling. 
Invested with all the attributes of heroic greatness, he shines 
in modern history as the foremost personage in a series of 
events involving the grandeur and sublimity of a tragic epos. 
His chosen work was an effort to reconstitute the Arab 
political and social system in Algeria. His story is one of 
glowing hopes cruelly frustrated, of lofty and patriotic inspira- 
tions rudely dispelled. It is not the less the record of a 
noble life marked by absorbing devotion to a sense of duty, by 
fixity of purpose, by unflinching and indomitable perseverance 
to the bitter end in a struggle against overwhelming force. 

Abd-el-Kader, fourth son of Mahhi-ed-Din, by one of his 
four wives, a lady named Zohra, was born in the month of 
May 1807, at the paternal ketna, or family village, on the 
banks of the river Hamraara, in the Algerian province of 
Oran, a few miles west of Mascara. From his infancy, he 
was the object of his father's fondest affection. The sire 
would often take him from the nurse to dandle him in his 
arms. He seems, indeed to have had some instinctive 




{Face page 160. 



ABD-EL-KADER. 



Hbb*eMfca&er in ]£outb 161 

feeling that the child was one to be held very precious as 
destined to greatness in the days that were to come. In 
the case of Abd-el-Kader, we find that the boy is not always, 
in all respects, the pattern of the man. Physically robust, 
the lad was, in his early years, probably from acute nervous 
sensibility, extremely timid. He who was to be one of the 
most dauntless fighters that ever lived was, in the literal sense, 
frightened at a shadow. Growth, and judicious practice in 
athletic sports, by degrees turned this softness of nature into 
the fibre of finely tempered steel. In mental power, the boy 
was of rare precocity. At the age of five, he could read and 
write. At twelve, he was a " Taleb," or a proved proficient 
in the Koran and its chief expositors. Two years later he 
had become a " Hafiz " — one knowing by heart the whole 
sacred book of Islam. He taught a class in the family mosque, 
explaining the most difficult passages in the commentaries on 
the Koran. His sole ambition, at that age, was to become, 
like his adored father, a famous "marabout," or religious 
devotee, one of a class of men invested, in the popular belief 
of Arabs, with the powers of prophets and miracle-workers. 

Abd-el-Kader's family belonged to the important tribe of 
the Hachems. Their origin was in Morocco, and it was our 
hero's grandfather who transported his household and property 
thence into the province of Oran. The newcomers soon 
acquired great influence, due to the saintly reputation of their 
head, and especially of the son, Mahhi-ed-Din. Abd-el- 
Kader's father was a man of rare piety in the way of Islam. 
His fortune was considerable, his charity profuse. Devoted 
to his faith, he founded a school ^of Arab learning, for in- 
struction in the law and religion of the Prophet, near his 
residence at Oued-el-Hammam. His great influence rested, as 
above hinted, not only on his purity of life and generous 
character, but on his dignity as a " marabout," and on his title 
to the only nobility of rank recognised among Arabs — his 
religious lineage as a descendant of the Prophet's sister 

ii 



i6 2 1bero patriots 

Fatima. His fame spread through the whole province, and 
litigant Arabs came many leagues to seek from him a settlement 
of disputes. He was the arbiter not only between individuals, 
but between tribes previously ready to rush to arms in their 
quarrel, but accepting his decision as if it were divine. 

During a short stay at the city of Oran, whither he was 
sent by his father to complete his education at one of its most 
famous schools, Abd-el-Kader acquired a keen hatred for the 
Turkish oppressors of his country, and a loathing of their 
vicious life, which violated all the principles of the Koran. 
In a few months, he returned to the paternal ketna and at 
the age of fifteen he married his cousin Leila Heira, a lady 
remarkable for her beauty and her moral worth. Most 
carefully guarded, in the day of danger for the morals of the 
young, by his father's watchful care, Abd-el-Kader, in his early 
marriage, was following the law of the Koran and Moslem 
usage. We must now look at the hero in his early manhood, 
and view his personality, and the physical attainments which 
were to serve him in the career that awaited him. 

At the age of seventeen, Abd-el-Kader's frame, with a 
height of about five feet six inches, was perfectly symmetrical 
and compact. A broad, deep chest, and a bony and muscular 
make, gave ample promise of activity and endurance. None 
of his associates excelled him in general agility and strength. 
On horseback, his performances were beyond all competition. 
It is beneath the dignity of the subject to say that, if he 
had not been destined to become a warrior of the first rank 
and a statesman of high repute, he might have made his 
fortune in the arena of a great hippodrome. He was not 
only a rider of the utmost grace, but quite wonderful in feats 
needing strength of arm and wrist, steadiness of hand, and 
keenness of vision. As he stood by his horse, touching the 
shoulder with his breast, he would place one hand on its 
back and vault over to the other side. When the animal 
was at full speed, he could remove his feet from the stirrups, 



Hbfc^eMfcafcer's features 163 

stand up in the saddle, and fire with excellent aim at a mark. 
His well-trained Arab, at a light touch from his hand, would 
kneel down, or walk for yards on hind legs, its fore ones 
pawing the air, or spring and jump like a gazelle. On the 
" turf," a pastime to which his people were devoted, he was 
admirable for coolness and judgment. Mounted on a choice 
jet-black steed, in striking contrast with his white burnous •, 
he often reached the goal with his competitors far in the 
rear, and rode in alone amidst the clapping of hands, shouts 
of applause from the men, and the shrill cries of joy and 
welcome — the zulagheel — from the throats of hundreds of 
females, which are most exhilarating to the Arab in any 
moment of triumphant success. The equestrian prowess of 
Abd-el-Kader gave token of the time when his marvellous 
speed across country was to make him seem ubiquitous to his 
astonished and confounded foes, when he passed weeks with- 
out sleeping under cover, rarely ungirdling his sword; when 
the great emir was to be described as one whose " saddle is his 
throne." Among field-sports, his favourite was the hunting of 
the wild boar. Disdaining a display of the usual retinue 
of wealthy Arabs, he plunged into the forest with two or three 
servants, slew his prey, and returned from the chase to devote 
himself with fresh zeal to his religious studies. We complete 
our attempt at a portrait of the man by stating that his face, 
of the purest classic mould, was one of expressive and almost 
feminine beauty. The nose, middle-sized and delicately 
shaped, came between the Greek and Roman types. The 
finely cut lips, slightly compressed, were significant of deter- 
mined resolution and dignified reserve. A massive brow, 
almost white as marble, overshadowed large hazel eyes that 
in thoughtful repose had a soft, sad, subdued expression, 
flashing anon, with the excitement of the soul, into all the 
radiance of genius, intellect, and valour. The apparel of 
the man was plain and simple. His weapons alone showed 
a love of display in the silver-inlaying of the long Tunisian 



i6 4 1bero patriots 

musket, the mother-of-pearl and coral deckings of his pistols, 
and the silver-gilt sheathing of his keen Damascus blade. 

Thus highly gifted by nature, earnest in self-culture, 
attractive alike to admirers of intellectual and physical acquire- 
ments, the young Abd-el-Kader shared the unbounded respect, 
confidence, and affection which the Arabs of Oran had long 
extended to his father. Mahhi-ed-Din, rejoicing to see his 
fondest hopes realised, took his favourite son as a companion 
on all excursions of duty and pleasure : on visits to the Turkish 
beys in the town, and to Arab tribes in distant parts. In 
October 1823 Abd-el-Kader alone, of all the sons and 
retainers, was permitted to start with the head of the house- 
hold on a pilgrimage to Mecca. The rumour of this journey 
caused a great stir among the Arabs of the province of Oran, 
and by the sixth evening of the travel eastwards to the territory 
of Tunis, thousands of people had assembled around Mahhi- 
ed-Din's tent claiming to share in the enterprise. At this 
moment, a horseman at full speed arrived with a letter from 
Hussein Bey, Turkish governor of Oran. It was a summons 
for the great " marabout " to repair promptly to the city of Oran. 
The earnest remonstrances of the pilgrims, whose fears for 
their beloved and revered leader were aroused, could not 
shake the loyalty of the saintly man. " My children," he 
cried, " it is my duty to obey, and I go, though it cost me 
my head." In the result, he and Abd-el-Kader remained 
for two years state-prisoners of the bey, whose jealous fears 
had been aroused by the popularity of Mahhi-ed-Din. 

On their release, in November 1825, they quitted Oran, 
in the utmost privacy, for Tunis, whence they took ship for 
Alexandria, and then travelled to Cairo. There, for the first 
and only time, Abd-el-Kader saw the famous Pasha Mehemet 
Ali, the founder of modern Egypt. By way of Suez and 
Djedda, the father and son arrived at Mecca, thus winning 
the coveted title of hadji or saint. Thence they journeyed 
to Damascus, where a stay of some months was made for the 



Bbfc*el*1kafcer's HMlarimaaes 165 

purpose of devotion and study in the great mosque. A new 
journey of thirty days took them, by way of Palmyra, to 
Bagdad. Their object was to visit the tomb of the patron 
saint of Algeria, Abdel-Kader-il Djelalli, a personage of the 
twelfth century highly revered in the world of Islam. In 
later times, the successes of the Algerian hero were attributed 
by the Arabs to the patronage of his mighty namesake. His 
own view was that expressed by him with finger pointed up 
to heaven, " My trust was in God alone." After three months 
spent at Bagdad, the father and son returned to Mecca. 
Their funds were exhausted, and for the journey back to 
Algeria, made wholly by land after crossing the Red Sea, 
they depended on the resources of their fellow-pilgrims. 
They reached home early in 1828, after an absence of more 
than four years, since the first start in October 1823, and 
were received at the ketna with great rejoicings, followed by 
festivities which the lavish hospitality of Mahhi-ed-Din 
prolonged for weeks. 

Abd-el-Kader had been now raised, by his two pilgrimages 
to Mecca, to a high point of religious renown. Whatever 
his secret views and aspirations may have been at this time, 
he gave no sign. With a vow of religious seclusion, he seemed 
to scorn the allurements of ambition, the visions of worldly 
greatness. His life became, for a time, that of a cloistered 
monk wholly given to study and to prayer. From sunrise 
to sunset he rarely left his room, save for meals and for 
devotion at the family mosque. Arabic versions of Plato 
and Aristotle, works on ancient and modern history, on philo- 
sophy, geography, medicine, and other subjects, were eagerly 
perused. He would not, as it seemed, have exchanged his 
communion with the master-spirits of the world of letters 
for any throne. A power, mysterious, irresistible by the 
human will, was, however, exercising its invisible influence. 
Abd-el-Kader had renounced the world : he was ere long 
to appear one of its foremost actors. He clung to seclusion 



1 66 1bero patriots 

and a life of peace : he was soon to shine in might in the 
fierce front of battle. 

We must now give a brief sketch of the scene of action for 
the great coming Arab warrior and statesman. Algeria 
consists of a territory having over seven hundred miles of 
coast-line between Morocco and Tunis, with a breadth inland 
of a hundred and eighty to two hundred and fifty miles, 
bounded by desert. If we take the thirtieth parallel of north 
latitude as the southern limit, the area has about two hundred 
and fifty-eight thousand square miles. In other words, the 
country is more than five times the size of England. There are 
three distinct regions. The northern, called the Tell, is some- 
what larger than England, and is generally mountainous, with 
fruitful valleys intersecting the hills. In some places, a fertile 
plain lies between the hills and the sea, as the plain of Oran, 
and the Metidja, to the south of Algiers. This part of the 
country has an average breadth of fifty miles. South of the 
Tell lies the central region of mountainous plateaux, rich 
in spring with a sudden growth of long grass and aromatic 
herbage, dear to the numerous herds of cattle. This district 
is bounded on the south by a chain of mountains reaching, 
in one peak, a height of over seven thousand five hundred feet. 
Southwards again is the Algerian Sahara, the third division, 
equal in area to the other two combined, and consisting partly 
of sandy dunes, always sterile, partly of land producing herbage 
after rain. Around the wells are many oases. At the time 
of the events of this record, the whole population, in default 
of accurate statistics, may be placed at about two and three- 
quarter millions. The Arabs of various tribes may have 
numbered one and a half millions ; the Kabyles, or Berbers, 
one million; the Arabs of the towns, Moors, and Jews, a 
quarter of a million. The Arabs were either nomads in the 
southern territory, rearing cattle, or tillers and cattle-breeders 
in the Tell. The Moors of the towns and villages on or near 
the coast were a mixed stock of the Arab and the ancient 



ZTurfetsb 1Rule in Hlaeria 167 

Mauritanian and Berber races. The true Berbers, the famous 
Kabyles of Franco-Algerian warfare, mainly dwelt in the 
mountainous parts of the eastern region. The Kabyles, a 
determined and indomitable people, mostly fighters on foot, 
descend from the old Numidians of Roman times, and differ 
from the Arabs in person and in language. The Arabs, 
descended from the seventh-century conquerors, fight on horse- 
back. The bond of union between these two races was that 
of religion, both being devoted to Islam. Both races in- 
cluded numerous tribes, often at issue with each other. 

We are not here concerned with the origin of the French 
invasion of Algeria further than the fact that it was due in 
1830, in the last resort, to insults offered by Hussein, Dey 
of Algiers, to the French government and people. Algeria 
was then a "regency" of the supreme Turkish government 
at Constantinople. The dey was practically independent of 
the Sultan. Of Hussein's method of rule it must first be 
noted that it was certain, when his power came to an end 
under foreign attack, to be followed by anarchy. The rule 
exercised over the diverse peoples was far from being uniform 
and complete. The power of the beys was absolute over the 
inhabitants of the towns and over the Arabs of the plains, 
who were well in reach of the arm of chastisement in case 
of disobedience. Turkish authority was nominal or null as 
to the untamable Kabyles or Berbers of the region comprising 
the mountain pastures to the east of Algiers. The regency 
was divided into four chief governments — those of Algiers 
to the north, Constantine to the east, Oran to the west, and 
Tittery in the centre. This last alone did not bear the name 
of its capital town, Medeah. The provinces of Tittery, Oran, 
and Constantine, styled " beyliks," were ruled by great 
feudatory personages dependent on the dey. Algiers proper, 
composed of territory bordering on the Mediterranean, was 
under the direct administration of the dey himself. Apart 
from the Kabyles, the authority of the beys was contested 



168 1bero patriots 

by certain tribes of kindred race isolated in almost inaccessible 
hilly country. The maintenance of order depended on a military 
organisation rather skilfully contrived. There were, on the 
one hand, military colonies, fixed at suitable points, composed 
of Koulouglis, the offspring of Turks and of native women. 
These people had certain privileges granted in consideration 
of their partly Ottoman blood. On the other hand, the more 
warlike Arab tribes were attached to the Turkish government 
by exemptions from tribute and other favours ; and, in return, 
these tribes furnished a body of militia in support of the 
regular Turkish militia, a force of about fifteen thousand men. 
Internal order was, in fact, maintained by the method of 
turning one part of the population against the other. The 
oppressed people had a natural hatred, not only for the Turks, 
but for the tribes who aided Turkish tyranny ; and Algeria thus 
contained bodies of men ready to fly at each other's throats 
as soon as restraint was removed. The French expulsion 
of the Turkish militia at once upset the balance of affairs. 
The auxiliary tribes were unable, without any Turkish troops 
to rely upon, to control the tribes formerly subject to Turkish 
oppression. Civil war arose with all its horrors, and the state 
of anarchy which ensued caused the wiser Arabs to look round 
for a leader of sufficient authority to re-establish peace. It 
was this condition of affairs that opened the road to the 
political and warlike career of Abd-el-Kader. 

It was the people of Tlemsen and the tribe of Beni-Amers 
who first saw the need of rallying round a chief who could 
restore order in the distracted land. Application was first 
made to Mouley Abd-er-Rahman, emperor of Morocco, to 
appoint a governor. He sent a nephew as his khalifa or 
lieutenant, Mouley-Ali. Many tribes at once recognised him 
as ruler in the province of Oran, but in the spring of 1831 
he was recalled by the emperor, under pressure from the 
French government. The province at once relapsed into its 
former condition, In January of that year, French troops, 



Hrabs in Conflict witb ffrencb 169 

under General Damremont, had entered the city of Oran. 
The Turks had quitted the province, but the French had not 
succeeded to any of their power, except in the capital. Outside 
the walls all was anarchy ; rival tribes were in conflict. The 
absence of all control induced the gratification of private 
hatreds. Thieves and bandits had a free course. No man 
of peaceable intentions could safely quit his douair, or little 
group of inseparable families. The markets were empty, 
because no dealer dared carry grain for sale. Famine 
threatened the land. All eyes were turned now to Mahhi-ed- 
Din, and the marabouts and chiefs begged him to assume 
authority as " Sultan of Oran." He urged his great age in 
excuse, and would only assume the nominal command of the 
goums, or irregular cavalry, who were about to march against 
the city of Oran. 

We must now trace the rise and progress of Arab hostility 
to the French invaders. The occupation of Algiers in 1830 
did not at first cause any unusual feeling of dread. General 
Bourmont's proclamation, however, that France took possession 
of the whole regency ; the removal of every trace of Turkish 
power in Algiers ; the issue of laws and ordinances in the name 
of the French sovereign ; the seizure of all the coast towns, 
and the advance of military reconnaissance towards the Atlas 
mountains, revealed designs which no Arab of that generation 
in northern Africa, or any of his ancestors, had ever been 
called upon to counteract. Before the French troops moved 
beyond the walls of Algiers, a friendly disposition of the Arabs 
had been shown. Provisions had been freely supplied for 
sale. Some chiefs had tendered their submission. The Bey 
of Tittery had even accepted French investiture. The French 
invaders fondly believed that all the people, weary of the 
Turkish yoke, would hail them as deliverers, and that the 
annexation of Algeria would be an easy achievement. They 
were rudely and quickly undeceived when they made a move- 
ment towards the interior of the country. In the last week of 



i7o 1beto patriots 

July 1830 an expedition commanded by General Bourmont 
in person went to Blidah, a town at the foot of the Lower 
Atlas. The leading men of the place came out to meet the 
troops, and, lulled into security by the seemingly friendly 
attitude of the townsfolk, the French linesmen gladly threw 
aside their knapsacks and wandered at ease in the charming 
gardens. They were suddenly roused by the rush of bands 
of Arabs from the hills, who commenced a fierce attack with 
wild cries. French discipline quickly gathered the troops, 
who held their ground within the city, repulsed their assailants, 
and retreated, the next day, in good order, to Algiers. From 
that hour, the spirit of resistance assumed a decided form. 
The Bey of Tittery, eager to atone for his recent defection 
from the national cause, wrote to Bourmont, threatening to 
come with a large force and drive him and his men into the 
sea. The marabouts proclaimed the Djehad^ or Holy War, 
and only a leader was needed to focus the resources of Islam 
in Algeria. 

At this time, Abd-el-Kader, then in his twenty-fourth year, 
had an opportunity of drawing attention to his ability as a 
counsellor in time of need. Hussein, Bey of Oran, closely 
blockaded by the Arabs, who hated him for his tyranny, sent 
for Mahhi-ed-Din and craved his protecting aid. The old 
marabout asked for time to consult his fellow-tribesmen. On 
his arrival at the ketna, he called a family council, and the 
general opinion was in favour of affording an asylum to the 
fallen man who had, in past times, ill-treated the revered 
marabout and his son Abd-el-Kader. That son now respect 
fully claimed a hearing. He urged the extreme difficulty of 
protecting the bey in the present anarchical condition of the 
province of Oran. If he were maltreated or slain, great 
reproach would accrue to those who had given him a safe- 
conduct without having the power of making it respected. 
Further, protection afforded to a justly hated foe would be 
regarded as treason to the national cause, and would draw 



Bt)&*el*1kafcer tafees tbe aflelb 171 

down on themselves the hatred of all the Arabs in Oran. 
Mahhi-ed-Din and the rest of the council yielded to this 
reasoning. The bey's request was refused, and in January 
1 83 1, when General Damremont, as we have seen, landed 
with French troops at Oran, Hussein took ship for 
Alexandria. 

It was in May 1832 that Abd-el-Kader, with his father 
serving under him, had his first experience of war, in combats 
against the French. The Arabs had been attacking Fort 
Philip, a strong post to the south of the town of Oran. When 
the young leader arrived he took a mixed body of cavalry and 
infantry to the very walls of the fort. Ordering the foot- 
soldiers to descend into the ditch and keep up a constant fire 
on the ramparts, he placed the horsemen ready to resist a 
sortie. The Arabs were at first staggered by the fire of shot 
and shell, and were only kept together by Abd-el-Kader's 
courageous demeanour and words of cheer. When word 
came that the men in the ditch had expended their ammuni- 
tion and that no man would expose himself to supply them, 
"Cowards," he cried, "give me the cartridges." He then 
wrapped them up in the folds of his scarlet burnous, rode 
singly over the plain, flung the cartridges into the ditch, bade 
the men stand firm, and dashed back unhurt to his post. 
This and other acts of courage soon won for him the almost 
superstitious reverence of his followers, who looked upon him 
as one bearing a charmed life, specially protected against 
missiles which laid others low. He was, in fact, laying a 
sure basis for his coming power. The daring of Abd-el-Kader 
was, indeed, extraordinary. At one time he might be seen 
breaking through the line of the enemy's skirmishers ; at 
another, charging up to a square, and sweeping at the 
bayonets with his yataghan. Now, he would check his steed 
and remain unmoved, with contemptuous gestures at the 
cannon-balls as they whizzed by or over his head, or at shells 
exploding near at hand. On November 10 and n his 



172 fbero patriots 

renown as a fighter was crowned, and the Arabs felt that in 
their young chief a master-spirit had arisen to lead them in 
their struggle against the infidels. On one of those days, they 
beheld him, with a laugh at the peril incurred, rushing many 
times across the path of shells ricochetting on the ground 
before they burst, and mocking at the fear displayed by his 
men. On the other day, they saw him, at a moment when 
all his troops were fleeing, calmly advancing to aid his nephew 
Sy Thaieb, who, mortally wounded, was about to fall into the 
hands of the French. Abd-el-Kader dismounted and carried 
off the youth under a heavy fire. 

Desultory acts of valour are, however, only aids to war, and 
the wiser chiefs and marabouts saw that a responsible head 
was needed to organise, to raise revenues by regular imposts, 
to husband resources, and to form and carry out a regular 
plan of campaign. Moreover, apart from the occasions when 
fanatical hatred of Christian invaders led rival tribesmen to 
unite in attacks on French outposts, disorder still reigned 
in the province of Oran. Even Mahhi-ed-Din could not 
control rancorous feelings and rival ambitions by his friendly 
influence. At last, the leading men of the Hachems and Beni- 
Amer tribes called a meeting and invited the great marabout 
to attend. He was surrounded by an excited throng as soon 
as he arrived from his ketna, where he had been taking a 
short repose from the strife, and was urged to assume supreme 
authority in the interests of peace, order, and religion. In 
their excitement, the chiefs even placed their swords at his 
breast, and cried, "Choose between being our Sultan or 
instant death." Mahhi-ed-Din, though he was deeply moved, 
still preserved his presence of mind. He avowed that he was 
a man of peace, urged his own age and infirmity, and said that 
the leader whom they needed must be young, active, intelligent 
and brave. "Well," cried the chiefs, "since you cannot com- 
mand us, give us as Sultan, not your eldest son, who is nothing 
but a bookish man, but the son of Zohra, who is a man of 



Hbfc*el*1ka£>er cbosen Sultan 173 

gunpowder ! " The words were received with loud acclama- 
tions, and a horseman was despatched for Abd-el-Kader. The 
destined hour of his elevation to power had sounded. 

Early on the morning of November 21, 1832, the young 
warrior entered Mascara and passed through the crowded 
streets. At the council, he accepted the proffered honour with 
the simple words, "It is my duty to obey my father's 
commands." A burst of applause followed, and the new ruler, 
seated in an antique chair of state, dragged for the occasion 
from some musty recess, received the allegiance of the chiefs 
amid cries of " Long life and victory to our Sultan, Abd-el- 
Kader ! " A new Arabian caliphate thus arose in the person 
of a ruler then in his twenty-sixth year. In the afternoon, at 
the crowded mosque, Abd-el-Kader, after his devotions, read 
and expounded the Koran. Then he burst into a torrent of 
impassioned eloquence lasting for hours, while he dwelt in 
burning words on the iniquities of the land, on its desecration 
by infidel hordes, and, with flashing eyes and outstretched arm, 
called on his hearers to stand forward in the cause of God and 
the Prophet, to rally round the standard of the " Djehad," 
and to emulate the martyrs of the true faith. As he painted 
in vivid colours the liberated spirits of the slain entering the 
mansions of bliss, the armed men sprang to their feet, shook 
their spears, brandished their swords, wept aloud, and with 
frantic cries yelled ; " II Djehad ! II Djehad." 

On the next day, November 22, the Sultan was received in 
state, in the valley of Ersibia, near Mascara, by ten thousand 
Arab cavalry, arranged, according to their tribes, in a continuous 
crescent, around a splendid tent. The people of Mascara 
filled the rest of the ground. The royal cavalcade approached 
as the rising sun's slanting rays peered over the adjacent eastern 
heights, amid the shrill cries of women, the shouts of the men, 
and incessant crashes of musketry. First came a chosen band, 
escorting the standard of the Djehad. Then followed the 
chiefs of the Beni-Amer and other tribes, on high-mettled 



174 Ifoero patriots 

steeds, with brilliant equipments and burnished weapons. 
Then came Abd-el-Kader, with a plain red burnous flung over 
his shoulders, and riding his favourite black charger. The 
chiefs of the Beni-Hachem, his own tribe, brought up the rear. 
Making his way slowly through the crowd which pressed around 
to kiss his hand or the hem of his burnous, or even his horse's 
feet, the Sultan reached his tent and dismounted. In a few 
minutes he came forth, led by the hand of Mahhi-ed-Din, 
who presented him with the words, " Behold the son of Zohra ! 
Obey him as you would have obeyed me ! God protect the 
Sultan." Then the people cried, " Our lives, all that we have, 
are his ! We will obey no law but that of our Sultan Abd-el- 
Kader." " I, in my turn," the Sultan cried, " will know no law 
but the Koran. If my own brother forfeits his life by the 
Koran, he shall die." He then vaulted into his saddle and 
swept along the lines of Arab cavaliers, followed by all the 
chiefs, and crying at intervals, " II Djehad ! " The banners 
waved, the drums and trumpets sounded, and the whole mass 
of men, breaking ground, circled round their ruler in successive 
squadrons, and then escorted him back to Mascara. Abd-el- 
Kader then issued a proclamation, announcing his election as 
Sultan, and his assumption of the office in the hope of uniting 
the Moslems, restoring law and order, and clearing the country 
of the foe. To this end, all his subjects must study and obey 
the law of the Prophet. His trust was in God; from Him 
alone did he look for reward and success. 

Sovereignty thus assumed, the difficulties of the sovereign 
began. It was Abd-el-Kader's first object to centralise Arab 
power. The religious party was ready to give him full support, 
but there were many jealous chiefs who looked askance on the 
new ruler. They could not or would not comprehend the 
grandeur of his aim in seeking to establish a new Arab 
nationality. He was appealing to a race accustomed for 
centuries to a foreign yoke, men in whom the principle of 
patriotism had long been extinct. One powerful chieftain 



Hbt>*el*1ka£>er as Commander 175 

spoke of his claims with undisguised contempt. Another 
held sternly aloof. Mustapha-ben-Ismail, an old and ex- 
perienced warrior, grown grey in the command of Turkish 
militia, disdained to kiss the hands, as he said, of a beardless 
boy. The main trust of the man of genius who had dared to 
imagine the mighty edifice of Arab union in northern Africa, 
was placed in the latent fires of fanaticism, which he well knew 
to be slumbering in the Moslem breast. What love of country 
would not effect, zeal for religion might accomplish. He 
issued invitations for a gathering of forces at Mascara in the 
spring of 1833. Many important tribes from the Tell and the 
Sahara cordially responded to the summons. The tribes who 
had been long employed by the Turks as instruments for the 
oppression of their fellows sent either evasive or insulting 
answers. Anarchy was the most profitable condition for 
them, and many were even ready to join the French. On the 
day appointed, May 18, an array of eight thousand cavalry 
and a thousand infantry assembled on the Ersibia plains. 
Abd-el-Kader's standard, a large white flag with an open hand 
in the centre, was unfurled with great ceremony. Then, after 
riding through the ranks, and uttering a few stirring sentences, 
he led them off towards Oran. His system of life and 
command was regular and simple. One compartment of his 
large tent was a general reception-room, where he heard 
appeals and administered justice. The smaller room was his 
sleeping-place and library. The day's march generally ended 
at noon, and the Sultan then passed an hour in private prayer. 
This over, he met his chief officers and his secretaries in the 
reception-room, where his plans and the enemy's movements 
were discussed, and orders and despatches were dictated. At 
sunset, the Sultan stood at his tent door and preached ; and 
his eloquence was one of the chief sources of his influence 
and power. 

At the time of the advance on Oran, the Hachems, the 
Sultan's family tribe, had been engaged in a series of encounters 



176 Ifcero patriots 

with the French under General Boyers. This commander 
had been replaced by General Desmichels, and Abd-el-Kader 
came up just in time to aid his countrymen in resisting a vigorous 
French attack. Dividing his force into two portions, he sent 
one to fall on the enemy's left flank. At the head of the 
other, he marched straight to the assault of a fort held by 
the French, who had there a battalion of infantry, a squadron 
of Chasseurs d-'Afrique, and two guns. On nearing the fort, 
the Arab infantry wavered. The Sultan then dismounted, 
and led his men on for an escalade. Repulsed in two assaults, 
he remounted, withdrew his men, and rejoined his cavalry. 
In the open ground, the French were well beaten by the 
Arab horse. Their lines of skirmishers were swept away, and 
even squares were broken. At night, Desmichels was forced 
to withdraw under cover of his guns. For some days there 
was then a suspension of warfare. 

Then the Sultan, impatient of inaction, laid a night-ambush 
in a copse with a hundred picked horsemen a short distance 
from Oran, and fell suddenly on a squadron of Chasseurs. 
Leading the charge, he routed them with the loss of several 
men killed and thirty captured. One Frenchman made a thrust 
at the Sultan with a lance, the weapon passing under his left 
arm. He there held it firmly against his side while he swept 
off the foe's head with his sabre. He then returned to 
Mascara, after thus trying the mettle of his warriors and 
giving them confidence against the French. His success 
brought the adhesion of some more tribes, and he resolved to 
strike at his more important native opponents. 

Sidi-el-Aribi, a powerful chieftain in the valley of the 
Cheliff, had been collecting forces to attack the Sultan. 
Abd-el-Kader swept down upon him with five thousand men, 
took him by surprise, and forced him to abject submission, 
with his son as a hostage in the victor's hands. His authority 
was now promptly accepted where no great feudal influences 
prevailed. The small provincial towns opened their gates. 



m>$*eU1fcabcv defeats jfrencb 177 

The Sultan now sought to place his power on a more solid 
basis by holding places of strength, erecting arsenals, and 
establishing magazines of military stores. With this view he 
attacked Tlemsen, a town about seventy miles south-west of 
Oran. The place is situated on an eminence at the foot 
of steep and lofty mountains. The walls are remarkable for 
solidity and strength, and it had frequently resisted siege with 
success. With strong detachments from his chief supporting 
tribes, the Hachems and the Beni-Amers, Abd-el-Kader 
quickly won the town ; but the Koulouglis occupying the citadel 
refused to surrender. Destitute of artillery, the Sultan could 
not reduce the fort; but its defenders promised a friendly 
neutrality, and he returned to Mascara, leaving an officer and 
garrison in the town. On the road he received news of his 
father's death, which greatly afflicted him ; but his new duties 
gave him barely time to follow Mahhi-ed-Din's remains to 
the grave. 

He was called to fresh work by the French general 
Desmichels' capture of the towns of Arzew and Mostaganem. 
Not a moment was to be lost. On August 2, 1833, the Sultan 
led an assault on the walls of Mostaganem. This attempt 
failed, but Desmichels, leaving the garrison, returned to Oran 
in order to carry out a long-formed plan. On August 5 he 
sent out a force of three thousand cavalry and infantry, with 
three field-guns, to attack the Zmelas and Douairs, two tribes 
who were actively aiding Abd-el-Kader in enforcing his blockade 
of Oran. On the 6th, at daybreak, the French column came 
on the Arab camp, and opened fire with the guns, while the 
cavalry charged and the infantry went on at the double from 
other points. The Arabs fled, leaving their flocks and herds, 
and many women and children, to the enemy. On a sudden, 
the flight was stayed. The Arabs, whose numbers seemed 
wonderfully increased, faced round and took the attitude of 
offence. Abd-el-Kader had arrived. Divining Desmichels' 
object in leaving Mostaganem, the Sultan had rushed away to 

12 



178 Ifoero patriots 

the critical point. His appearance changed the face of affairs. 

The French infantry hastily retreated, some in disorder, others 

in quickly formed squares. The cavalry and artillery did their 

best in support, but the Frenchmen had brought no food, 

depending on the stores of the encampment which they had 

assailed. These were now lost. They were suffering from 

hunger and thirst beneath a burning sun, and they were soon 

almost enveloped by the Arab horsemen. The dry herbs and 

brushwood in their rear were fired, and the retreat was 

continued over hot cinders and amid sheets of flame. No 

courage could endure such a trial. Many flung away their 

arms. Some perished by suffocation, many more by Arab 

yataghans. Desmichels, hearing the news, turned out the 

whole garrison of Oran, who reached the scene of action in 

time to save their comrades from utter destruction. The 

Sultan then hurried away to resume the siege of Mostaganem, 

one of whose forts was protected by the fire of a French brig. 

The Arabs stripped, and swam off, holding their muskets over 

their heads, and strove to carry the vessel by boarding. They 

were beaten off, but the audacity displayed showed the 

influence of a spirited leader. The walls of the place were 

approached by sapping, and an explosion effected a breach. 

The determined assault was, however, repulsed by the severe 

front and flanking fire, and the Arab Sultan returned to 

Mascara. The Douairs and Zmelas, exposed to the incursions 

of the French, then accepted French protection, and so incurred 

the wrath of Abd-el-Kader, in violating the principle of the 

Koran which bade the faithful to conquer or die. He resolved 

to severely chastise all submission of this kind, and to become, 

if need were, an object of terror rather than of love to some of 

his countrymen in order to complete the edifice of Arab 

unity. He alone must hold the power of making peace or 

signing conditions, and he resolved to impress on the minds 

of all the tribes that, if any accepted terms from the enemy on 

their own account, their last and heaviest reckoning would be 



jfurtbet Conflict 179 

with him. The Douairs and Zmelas in due time experienced 
this correcting discipline. 

Meanwhile, the French government and people, after the 
" revolution of July," in 1830, had begun to flag in enthusiasm 
on the subject of Algerian conquest. Little was known of the 
country, and plans for administration were always being 
changed. The army in Algeria was reduced to ten thousand 
men. All French measures were marked by weakness and 
indecision, while Abd-el-Kader, daily gaining fresh confidence 
among the tribes, was developing in them long-hidden virtues 
from the depths of Arab character. His energy and courage 
brought to light patience, perseverance, fixity of purpose, and 
a spirit of union which were invaluable for his future work. 
Self-interest began to yield to patriotism, and the Arabs 
ceased to frequent the French markets, and aided the Sultan's 
rigorous system of blockade. Small and rare supplies came 
by sea, and it was from sheer want of food that the French 
troops made raids in the interior. Their commander, Des- 
michels, sought an opportunity of negotiating with the Sultan 
on this subject, and found it in the capture of an escort of 
three soldiers who were guarding, on his way home, an Arab 
who had sold some cattle to the French garrison at Arzew, on 
the coast. The French general wrote to Abd-el-Kader, asking 
for the release of his men. This request was refused, and the 
Sultan dared the French commander to march out two days' 
journey from the walls of Oran. Desmichels retorted by 
again attacking and plundering the Douairs and Zmelas. 
Abd-el-Kader, then among the Beni-Amers, rushed to the 
rescue. Five thousand horsemen at his heels covered fifty 
miles in less than three hours, arriving with less than half the 
men fit to fight. With these the Sultan instantly charged. 
The French, confounded by his appearance, hastily retired, 
leaving behind the women and children whom they had taken 
as hostages. Fresh troops arrived, with some more artillery ; 
but in spite of a galling fire, Abd-el-Kader kept up a harassing 



180 ibero patriots 

pursuit to the outskirts of Oran. He then compelled the 
Douairs and Zmelas to quit their location, and he marched 
them off, with all their flocks and herds, to a new settlement 
on a large plain in the rear of Tlemsen. 

Desmichels, paralysed by the boldness and seeming ubiquity 
of his foe, finding his supplies cut off and his men face to 
face with starvation, was forced to ask for an interview to 
arrange a treaty for staying the effusion of blood. His letter 
was left unanswered, but the Sultan's agent at Oran, a wily 
Jew, was employed to suggest to the French general the offer 
of some definite terms. In a month's time, Desmichels sent 
a despatch fairly begging for peace. With this document in 
his hand, the Sultan could keep himself right with his Arabs, 
and he sent two officers to an interview, which took place, 
outside Oran, on February 4, 1834. The French envoy was 
the Jew, attended by the whole of the French staff, and, after 
negotiations then and afterwards, the famous " Desmichels 
Treaty " was framed which gave rise to much dispute. It is 
clear, however, that the cessation of hostilities left Abd-el-Kader 
in free possession of his territory, and of independence 
acknowledged in his power to appoint and receive consuls. 
The French general reported to his government the " submission 
of the province of Oran, the most considerable and warlike 
of the regency. This great event is the result of the advantages 
which have been obtained by the troops of my division." 
The reader will compare this with the facts as above stated. 
Abd-el-Kader was then enabled to turn his attention to the 
internal affairs of his kingdom, and to deal with difficulties 
and trials due to envy and fanaticism. To the extreme 
religious party, who asked "Where is now the leader of the 
Djehad, who invoked death rather than submission ? " he could 
point out the French garrisons, confined to the walls where 
their guns were planted, the plains freed from infidel marauders, 
and show a treaty dictated by himself, which now, for the 
first time in the lapse of ages, gave hopes for Arab freedom. 



Bb^eMKafcer an& Brab IRebete 181 

The Sultan had next to deal with disaffection among his 
own people. He trusted little to the peaceful professions of 
the French ; and, declaring the Djehad to be only suspended, 
not abandoned, he issued his usual edict for the collection of 
the war-tribute from the tribes, consisting of the tenth of all 
agricultural produce, and the tax on cattle. He was astounded 
when his most faithful supporters, the men who had been the 
most zealous aids of his rising power, the Beni-Amers, refused 
obedience, asserting that cessation of warfare brought cessation 
of tribute. Abd-el-Kader at once sent orders to Mustapha- 
ben-Ismail at Tlemsen to prepare his Douairs and the Zmelas 
for action. The tide of events was turned by an unexpected 
incident. As the Sultan was preaching one Friday, according 
to his custom, in the mosque at Mascara, he observed some 
of the Beni-Amer sheikhs, or chiefs, among his audience. 
He burst into a spirited appeal to their loyal and religious 
feelings, and the chiefs, pressing round him, promised to pay 
the tribute. Orders were dispatched to Mustapha to suspend 
his march on the Beni-Amers. That chieftain, formerly head 
of the Turkish militia, had an old grudge against the tribe, 
and, three days later, a horseman came at full speed with 
tidings that he had attacked them. The Sultan, gathering a 
small force of horsemen, hurried away to the scene of action, 
and ordered Mustapha to withdraw. On his refusal, a 
desperate fight ensued in which Abd-el-Kader's men were 
routed, and he barely escaped by cutting his way through his 
assailants, with his burnous shot through in many places and 
his horse covered with wounds. Late at night he rode into 
Mascara alone. 

The news spread, and at once all slumbering enmities 
were revived. Sidi-el-Aribi, the powerful chief in the Cheliff 
valley, raised the standard of revolt, and he was soon joined 
by others. The Sultan was not a man to be daunted in such 
a crisis. The Beni-Amers were staunch, with other tribes, 
and he could bring fifteen thousand horsemen into the field. 



1 82 1bero patriots 

With a goodly proportion of this force he prepared for battle, 
and he found an ally in the French commander, Desmichels. 
That officer rejected the proffered alliance of Mustapha, and 
warned him of the consequences of rebelling against the 
friend of France. The truth is, that Desmichels, dazzled 
by Abd-el-Kader's great qualities, designed to use him as 
the instrument of subduing the whole country from Morocco 
to Tunis, with the hope, in reserve, of making him, in the 
end, a vassal of France. Abd-el-Kader quite understood the 
position, and took full advantage of French actual aid without 
regard to the designs of French ambition. With Mustapha 
thus kept in check, the Sultan fell promptly on Sidi-el-Aribi, 
totally defeated him and made him prisoner. All the other 
rebel tribes were chastised, and the arrears of tribute gathered, 
and, flushed with victory, Abd-el-Kader next turned on 
Mustapha-ben-Ismail. 

On July 13, 1834, the armies met in a hard contest on 
the plains of Mahraz, and Mustapha, during a lull in the 
righting due to the exhaustion of the combatants under a 
burning sun, made submission. The Sultan then marched 
on Tlemsen, restored order by appointing a new governor 
on whom he could rely, and returned in triumph to Mascara. 

His next work was the organisation of the province of 
Oran. The territory was divided into two great districts, 
under khalifas or lieutenants. Every tribe was made respon- 
sible for peace and order in its own locality. Weekly reports 
were required concerning the number of cattle, beasts of 
burden, and horses fit for military service in each of the 
seven agalicks, or minor districts, of the eastern government, 
having Mascara as capital. The seat of government for the 
western region was Tlemsen. A cadi, appointed by the Sultan, 
and paid from the public treasury, dispensed justice to every 
tribe. A regular army of horse and foot was raised, the 
infantry being drilled by French non-commissioned officers. 
Cannon foundries, powder mills, and manufactories of small 



Bb^eMkafcer's Defiance of jfrencb 183 

arms were established,! under the care of skilled Europeans. 
Crime was vigilantly and severely repressed, and the whole 
province, which had been, eighteen months before, a prey 
to anarchy, became a scene of perfect safety and order. 

The fame of Abd-el-Kader had now spread throughout 
Algeria. The people of Miliana and Medea, the chief towns 
in the province of Tittery, sent deputations requesting him 
to do for their territory what he had effected in the province 
of Oran. A temporising reply was dispatched by the Sultan, 
who was obliged to reckon with other persons than admir- 
ing Arabs. A new governor-general, Count d'Erlon, had 
reached Algiers. He brought with him no additional force, 
and, as regarded policy, he was aware only that his govern- 
ment, for the present, desired to remain on good terms with 
Abd-el-Kader. He was amazed, however, to see a draft of 
Desmichels' secret treaty with the Sultan, and his report to 
the government in Paris caused that officer's speedy recall. 
D'Erlon forbade the Sultan to enter the province of Tittery, 
and he, at first, respected the prohibition. When news came 
that a certain adventurous chief from the Sahara had entered 
Medea, in Tittery, and been warmly received, and that the 
French governor paid no heed to the movement, Abd-el-Kader, 
fired by ambition and with native audacity, dashed across 
the Cheliff, marched on Medea, routed the pretender, took 
possession of the province of Tittery, to the joy of the 
people, and appointed khalifas at Medea and Miliana. The 
die was cast. He had crossed his Rubicon. He had defied 
the greatest military power in the world. 

Desmichels had been replaced at the city of Oran by 
General Trezel, and that officer proposed to D'Erlon the 
immediate seizure of Mascara. The governor-general could 
not see his way to such action, and negotiations were opened 
with the occupier of Tittery. An envoy was sent to treat with 
Abd-el-Kader at Medea, and the French officer was accom- 
panied by the cunning Jew agent, Durand, the Sultan's able 



i8 4 1bero patriots 

man of affairs at Algiers. Abd-el-Kader was playing an artful 
game with his French rivals. Durand had succeeded in 
impressing D'Erlon with a high sense of the influence and 
abilities of the Sultan. The envoy, Captain St. Hippolyte, 
was most courteously received. He witnessed a review of the 
Arab forces, he attended his host on a tour of inspection 
through the provinces of Tittery and Oran, and he was 
purposely taken in the Sultan's suite among the tribes 
supposed to be disaffected to Abd-el-Kader. These people 
regarded the French officer's presence as a token of French 
alliance. No treaty was made, though various drafts of pro- 
posed terms were exchanged, and the French envoy returned 
to D'Erlon, leaving to the Arab potentate all the advantages of 
the mission. The confidence of the Sultan in himself was raised 
to a high point, and this faith, strong as a religious conviction, 
became to him an instrument of power over the Arabs. 

The French commander, General Tre'zel, was highly dis- 
satisfied with the position of affairs, and, in spite of the 
governor-general's order to cultivate the friendship of the 
Sultan he adopted measures of provocation. His opportunity 
came in connection with the tribes of Douairs and Zmelas, 
who had been transferred by Mustapha-ben-Ismail, at the time 
of his revolt, from Tlemsen back to their old ground near 
Oran. There they resumed friendly intercourse with the 
French, and when Abd-el-Kader threatened to remove them 
again forcibly to Tlemsen, they applied for French protection. 
Tre'zel dispatched a brigade for the purpose, and in June 1835 
made a treaty with them by which they were recognised as 
French subjects. After a vain remonstrance, Abd-el-Kader 
sent a defiant letter, and hostilities were the result. On 
June 26 a French column of five thousand infantry, a regiment 
of Chasseurs, four mountain-guns, and a small train of 
provision-waggons, with the usual ambulance, was led by 
Trezel to a point near the river Sig, where the Sultan had 
gathered two thousand horse and eight hundred foot. 



Bbfc*el*1ftafcer's Successes 185 

Abd-el-Kader had not expected any strong attack, and his 
little army had been taken out to deal with the raid of some 
French cavalry who had been cutting down the crops of his 
family tribe, the Hachems. The leading companies of the 
French, shortly after entering the wood of Muley Ismail, 
opened fire on what they supposed to be a straggling party of 
Arabs. The fire was vigorously returned, and cavalry soon 
appeared on the scene. They were Abd-el-Kader's advance- 
guard coming from the Sig. In a few minutes the French 
were fiercely charged in front and on both flanks. The 
sudden onset, the thickness of the forest, and the undulating 
ground, tending to conceal the enemy's real numbers, soon 
shook the steadiness of the French troops. It was in vain that 
changes of formation were tried — the rear-battalions closed up, 
the centre compacted, and cavalry thrown out. The whole 
body was flung into confusion, the cavalry were driven in, 
and the infantry and artillery could only fire at random. 

The attack of the Arabs was for a while suspended, and 
the Frenchmen, breaking from their ranks, fell on their 
provision-waggons, staved in the wine-casks, and made a hasty 
and ravenous meal. The greatest exertions of their officers 
were needed to restore some kind of order, and the advance 
was resumed. About sunset the men reached the banks of 
the Sig, and there encamped in a solid square. The main 
body of the Sultan's army, coming by forced marches from 
Tlemsen, had halted for the night two leagues higher up the 
river, and the French were able to pass a quiet night. At 
dawn, Trezel began his retreat, but Abd-el-Kader, with true 
generalship, had now, by a swift night-march, seized the line of 
communication with Oran. The French general, in no 
condition to fight his way through, tried for the seaport 
town of Arzew, by way of the defile of the Habra, where that 
river changes its name to " Macta," a name of ill-omen in 
French Algerian annals. The Sultan, divining the object of 
his foe, resolved to seize the defile in advance. Infantry could 



186 1bero Patriots 

not be there in time, but the man of resource in the hour of 
need instantly mounted a thousand foot-soldiers behind as 
many cavalry and sent them off at full speed. About midday, 
the French, after a toilsome march across a plain in which 
they were constantly harassed by Arab horsemen, entered the 
defile and were safely entrapped. 

The slopes on each side of the pass were bristling with 
armed men. As they marched, huge pieces of rock were hurled 
upon them. The French skirmishers spent two hours in 
bravely but slowly opening a way, and Abd-el-Kader with his 
whole force closed in upon the column at the rear. The 
rear-guard pushed hurriedly to the front. Part of the artillery 
took ground to the right, and were swamped in a marsh. 
The gunners cut the traces of the horses, mounted them, and 
fled. Regiments were mingled together. Companies and 
sections rushed this way and that, seeking to escape. The 
exulting Arabs, luckily for some of their enemies, wasted time 
in plundering and slaying the wounded, and let many French- 
men get away into nooks and corners. Many men, plunging 
into the Macta for escape by swimming, were carried away by 
the stream and drowned. As an organised force, the French 
army was annihilated, and only fragments of helpless fugitives, 
as night drew on, could make their way to Arzew. The 
defile presented a strange scene during the night, amid the 
glare of torches, as the Arabs, with shouts of joy, revelled in 
plunder and in the carnage which they had made. At one 
point, a pile was seen growing up like a pyramid under the 
work of busy hands. When the work was done, some 
hundreds of the heads of Frenchmen were displayed. It was 
about midnight when Abd-el-Kader, who had been directing 
operations in front, rode to the spot and viewed the ghastly 
trophy with horror. He vowed in his own heart that this 
should be the last of such barbarities, and his vow was 
fulfilled. 

The terrible disaster of the Macta horrified and enraged the 



rtfcarsbal Clausel in Command 187 

French nation. D'Erlon was recalled. Trezel was replaced 
by General d'Arlanges. Marshal Clausel, a Peninsula veteran, 
of good repute for his efforts at Salamanca and in the 
Pyrenees, was sent out as governor-general. The army of 
occupation was reinforced, and the new ruler was enjoined to 
prosecute the war vigorously against Abd-el-Kader, and to seize 
his capital, Mascara. Clausel arrived at Algiers in August 
1835, and' issued a pompous proclamation, with a map 
portioning out Algeria into " beylicks," under native governors 
named, as though the victorious Sultan did not exist. The 
deeds of Clausel hardly, at first, corresponded with his 
assumptions. Expeditions to Medea, Miliana, and Cherchell 
returned in discomfiture. Abd-el-Kader's khalifa at Miliana 
came down, by his orders, into the Metija plain with five 
thousand cavalry and infantry, swept the district of Algiers 
clean of all the French colonists, and blockaded the city of 
Algiers itself. D'Arlanges and his garrison at Oran were 
reduced to the greatest straits, closely invested, little better off 
than prisoners of war. 

The French troops were almost at mutiny-point in the rage 
of wounded pride. They demanded to be led out against the 
insulting foe. On November 21 Clausel went to Oran, and 
prepared to take the field with twelve thousand men. Abd- 
el-Kader had ready an army of eight thousand horse, two 
thousand foot, and four guns. His object was not to defend 
his capital, Mascara, but to check, harass, and, perhaps, 
defeat the enemy on their line of march. On November 27 
the French marshal left Oran. The wood of Mulez Ismael 
was passed, and the Sig was crossed without opposition. As 
the Habra stream was neared, the Arabs were seen moving, 
parallel to the army, along the adjacent heights. The Sultan 
was waiting a favourable moment for attack when a break 
should occur in the long French line. Clausel, an excellent 
tactician, halted, closed up, and, making face to his right, 
advanced in echelons of battalions from his left. Abd-el-Kader, 



1 88 Ibero patriots 

too wary to meet such a foe on the Frenchman's own terms, 
pushed rapidly forward, and placed himself across the main 
road leading to Mascara. His left, with his few guns, was 
posted on a height ; his right was covered by a wood. 
No general could have better chosen his ground. The 
defect lay, not in himself, but in the quality of his irregular 
troops. He could not give them the firmness and discipline 
of good European infantry. His advanced posts were soon 
driven in. The charges of his Arab cavalry were repulsed by 
shells and rockets. Abd-el-Kader, directing in person the 
fire of his guns, saw a French brigade in some confusion. He 
charged at once with his infantry. The Arabs and Kabyles 
went bravely on, but they were driven back in confusion by 
the Frenchmen. Meanwhile, after some hours' hard fighting, 
the French had occupied the wood on the Arab right, and 
their guns had pushed well up the main road. The Arabs 
then fell back at all points. All' the Sultan's efforts could 
preserve no order in the retreat. His regular infantry disbanded 
in the night. Some of the cavalry of the tribes rode off home ; 
others hurried away and began to plunder Mascara. Abd-el- 
Kader retired to his family property about two leagues from 
the town. He was almost alone ; his army had melted away. 
His greatness of soul did not quit him. He bade his few fol- 
lowers take heart. When his mother, in her compassion, 
came near to console him, he took her hand in his and 
said, " Women, mother, have need of pity, not men." 

On December 6, 1835, the victorious French marshal 
entered Mascara, finding it deserted by all but a wretched 
crowd of Jews. Two days later, he quitted the place, and on 
the next day a horseman rode up to the gates. It was 
Abd-el-Kader. News of his presence spread, and some Arabs 
soon appeared. The Aga, a high official, of the Hashems, 
was there with the royal parasol, which he had carried off in 
the flight. When he offered it, Abd-el-Kader, with a 
sarcastic smile, cried, " Keep it for yourself; you may one of 



Hb&*eMKa&er Great unfcer Defeat 189 

these days be Sultan." There was matter, as concerned the 
defeat, for the Sultan both to forgive and to punish. There 
had been timidity, and some treachery, displayed. As the 
day wore on, some of the fugitive chiefs came dropping in. 
They were received with contemptuous looks. At last one 
ventured to ask him if he had any orders to give them. " My 
orders ! " he cried. " Yes, my orders are that you instantly 
relieve me from the burden you imposed upon me, and which 
the interests of religion alone have enabled me to support up 
to this hour. Let the tribes make choice of my successor. I 
am going with my family to Morocco." Then chiefs and men 
fell before him, kissing his hands, his feet, his burnous, with 
entreaties for pardon and promises of future fidelity. c< He 
was their father, their Sultan, the chosen of God to lead on 
the Djehad ; their lives were his ; if he left them they had 
nought to do but surrender to the infidels." At these last 
words, Abd-el-Kader turned round abruptly, and, with the 
blood mantling in his cheeks, he exclaimed, " God's will be 
done ; but remember, I swear never to enter Mascara, except 
to go to the mosque, until you have avenged your ignominious 
defeat. I see traitors amongst you ; Mamoor yonder is 
one ; let him be hung." The man was at once taken out 
and executed. 

Confidence was restored, and dispatches went out that 
night from the royal tent, summoning the tribes to a renewal 
of hostilities. On the morrow, the hero, cheerful as ever, 
towering over misfortune, dauntless in defeat, mighty in 
disaster, went forth at the head of six thousand horsemen, 
to attack and harass the French column as, wrapped in storm, 
drenched with rain, and benumbed with cold, it pursued its 
march on Mostaganem. The Sultan had already regained 
his ascendency. Everywhere he was in possession of the 
field. Tribes who had veered towards submission to the 
invaders were punished by heavy fines. Clausel strove to 
open negotiations for peace, on condition that the Sultan 



igo f>ero patriots 

should acknowledge French sovereignty. Abd-el-Kader replied 
that he wished to know precisely what extent of power and 
territory he was to hold, as well as the obligations he would 
have to fulfil. Meanwhile, the French marshal marched 
against Tlemsen, on promise of aid from Mustapha-ben-Ismail. 
The Sultan, hearing of this, made a swift descent on the town, 
drove Mustapha and the Koulouglis back into the citadel, 
routed the Beni-Engad tribe, and then retired, unmolested, 
with all the people, to Ouchda, on the Morocco frontier, as 
Clausel approached with eight thousand men. The French 
entered Tlemsen on January 13, 1836. The marshal wrung 
the amount of a hundred thousand francs out of Mustapha 
and his supporters, by threats, blows, and even torture, in 
proof of the sincerity of their adhesion to the French cause. 
This treatment of allies was worth a victory to Abd-el-Kader 
in its effect upon the tribes. 

The French commander then marched out, on January 23, 
in order to establish a direct communication between Tlemsen 
and the coast. His object was to reach the mouth of the 
Tafna, but mountains intervened. He soon found himself 
confronted by the Sultan and his array. A conflict raged for 
ten successive days. The Arab commander, attempting no 
regular formation, took advantage of hills, ravines, rocks, and 
rivers at every point, and Clausel was forced to retreat on 
Tlemsen with heavy loss. After placing a garrison in the 
citadel, he returned with his column to Oran, harassed by 
his foe to the very gates. On arriving at Algiers, he issued a 
proclamation declaring the war to be finished in the utter 
defeat of the Sultan and his flight to the Sahara. 

Covering his discomfiture by this mendacious announce- 
ment, worthy of his former master, Napoleon, the marshal 
returned to France in April, leaving orders with General 
d'Arlanges, in command at Oran, to make a fortified camp 
on the Tafna, and to open thence the desired line of com- 
munication with Tlemsen. By April 16 the French general, 



General JBugeaufc in jfielfc 191 

with great difficulty, arrived at the Tafna with three thousand 
infantry and eight guns. After forming an entrenched camp 
on the river-banks he marched out, on April 21, to open the 
road to Tlemsen. The Sultan, who had been watching events 
from a position commanding the roads from the Tafna to 
Tlemsen and to Oran, came down from the heights, enveloped 
the French with masses of Arabs and Kabyles, and forced 
them to withdraw to the camp. The exertions needed on 
the part of Abd-el-Kader in order to effect the gathering of 
forces and the isolation of French garrisons, were almost 
incredible. In order to keep the whole country on the 
alert, he had for weeks been traversing the mountains of the 
Kabyles in the Tafna country. Through toilsome days and 
sleepless nights, he had been summoning, preaching, and 
haranguing, thereby raising the enthusiasm of the mountaineers 
to a pitch of frenzy. When the time for action came, they 
rushed to the combat like wild beasts, closed at once with 
the French infantry, grappled with them in single combat, 
swept through their ranks, and rushed up to the cannon's 
mouth. 

The French government, provoked by this determined and 
harassing warfare, poured in reinforcements. On June 6, 
1836, General Bugeaud, an able veteran who was to prove 
Abd-el-Kader's most formidable opponent, landed at the 
mouth of the Tafna with three fresh regiments. The attempt 
to force a way to Tlemsen was renewed, and with success. 
The Sultan, in a long and desperate battle on the banks 
of the Sikkah, was completely defeated. The tribes, to a 
great degree, dispersed to their homes. Nothing, however, 
could weaken the iron will of Abd-el-Kader. He knew that 
a wave of his sword would, after one fresh success, bring the 
warriors back to his standard. He heard of a certain chief 
who had raised a revolt and assumed the title of Sultan. 
He drew his sword from the scabbard, hung it at his saddle- 
bow, and vowed never to sheathe it or to dismount until 



i 9 2 ifoero patriots 

the traitor's head was off. He knew that his man was among 
the Beni-Amers, and he went almost alone and demanded 
his surrender. The rebel was given up, and Abd-el-Kader's 
vow was soon fulfilled. 

The Sultan's system of warfare was, in the highest degree, 
trying for the French. Their garrisons at various points were 
reduced to extremities by the activity of his movements in all 
directions and by the vigilance of his management of blockade. 
Their posts in the interior were completely cut off from the 
coast. No friendly tribes could supply the French with 
provisions. From Oran and from the Tafna camp it was 
needful to move out in large bodies, with a great train of beasts 
of burden bearing supplies. At Tlemsen the French com- 
mander, Cavaignac, was reduced to dining on cats purchased 
at forty francs a head. 

In November 1836 Clausel returned to his post as 
governor-general, and utterly failed in his siege of the great 
fortress of Constantine, the stronghold of Achmet Bey, the 
last representative of the Turkish power in Algeria. When 
the expedition failed, the Sultan from his head-quarters at 
Medea sent orders for a general advance against all the French 
possessions between the Atlas and the sea-coast. In the 
province of Oran, little could be effected, but thousands of 
Arabs and Kabyles, supported by the tribes of Tittery, swept 
down on the plain of the Metija, sacking and burning the 
French colonial establishments, slaying and taking captive the 
colonists, and carrying terror into the city of Algiers. The 
French garrisons were reduced to famine-point, when the Jew, 
Durand, whom we have seen as the Sultan's agent at Algiers, 
induced him to make an arrangement by which the enemy 
were to receive provisions in exchange for supplies of iron, 
lead, and sulphur. Tlemsen was to be re-victualled, but only 
on condition that all the Arab and Kabyle prisoners taken in 
the battle of Sikkah were sent back to Abd-el-Kader. It was 
at this juncture that General Bugeaud arrived from France, 



XTbe XTreatp of the TLatna 193 

at Oran, after a visit home, with instructions either to make 
peace with the Sultan or to subdue him. The negotiations 
which ensued show the high position which the Algerian hero 
had now attained. 

The famous "Treaty of the Tama," concluded between 
Abd-el-Kader and Bugeaud, was a triumph for the Arab 
Sultan. With the consent of all the great sheikhs, the leaders 
of cavalry contingents, the venerable marabouts, and the most 
distinguished warriors of the province of Oran, the Sultan, not 
acknowledging the sovereignty of France, but ; ceding to her a 
limited portion of the provinces of Oran and Algiers, reserved 
the free exercise of their religion for all Arabs dwelling on 
French territory. He undertook to supply the French army 
with a large quantity of corn and oxen, and to confine the 
commerce of the regency to French ports. In return, he 
received the administration of the larger part of the provinces 
of Oran and Algiers, and the whole of Tittery j the important 
right of buying powder, sulphur, and weapons in France ; and 
freedom of trade between the Arabs and the French. In 
ceding the province of Tittery, Bugeaud had violated the strict 
orders of the French government, alleging in excuse to the 
Minister of War that any other arrangement was "impossible." 
The treaty, in fact, confined the French to a few towns on the 
sea-coast, with small adjacent territories. All the fortresses 
and strongholds in the interior were left in the hands of 
Abd-el-Kader. He was the possessor of two-thirds of Algeria, 
and he appeared before the world as the friend and ally of 
France. 

The treaty was held by the French government to be a 
high stroke of policy, converting an enemy into an ally. The 
French people regarded it as a humiliating surrender of French 
territory to a rival power. It was the culminating point of 
Abd-el-Kader's career. He had now, however, to deal with 
difficulties arising from opposition among the Arabs for whose 
independence he had been so gallantly striving. Many of the 

13 



i 9 4 1bevo patriots 

tribes, freed for the time, through the Sultan's genius and 
audacity, from the toils and perils of war, wished to resume 
their separate existence. They could see no need for a central 
government, and declined to contribute to the expenses of its 
maintenance. In the southern parts of the province of Tittery 
a league was formed to resist the payment of all imposts. 

With contingents from his faithful tribes in the province of 
Oran, forming an effective force of eight thousand cavalry and a 
thousand infantry, joined by his khalifa at Miliana with four 
thousand horsemen and a thousand foot, and with some field- 
guns, the Sultan defeated the rebels in three days' battle and 
returned in triumph to Medea. His approach to the gates 
was hailed by thousands of villagers welcoming their mighty 
chief; garlands of flowers were strewn on his path, and perfumed 
waters were sprinkled on his head. He rode straight to the 
mosque, where he prayed and preached. For weeks presents 
and offerings poured in from all quarters. The great sheikhs, 
the marabouts, the cadis of Tittery and some from Oran, 
headed by the khalifas of districts, came in state to congratulate 
the victorious Sultan. 

His next task was to deal with ten powerful and 
numerous tribes, the Beni-Arasch, far away on the edge 
of the great Sahara desert, two hundred miles from Oran. 
These people, through their principal chief and marabout, 
declined to acknowledge him as Sultan, and had always 
refused to send cavalry contingents. On June 12, 1838, 
Abd-el-Kader advanced towards their fortified town, Ain 
Maadi, with six thousand cavalry, three thousand infantry, 
six mortars, and three field-guns. The place was reached 
after a tedious march of ten days over sandy wastes. The 
chieftain and marabout, El Tejini, taken by surprise, had 
barely time to close the gates and arrange defence with his 
garrison of only six hundred Arabs. Some breaches were 
made by the Sultan's artillery, but these were repaired. Then 
mining was resorted to, and the siege was prolonged for 



Bb^el^lKafcei: anb IRebel Hrabs 195 

months. Supplies of food became almost exhausted on both 
sides, and ammunition was all but expended. In this strait, 
the greatest in which he had hitherto found himself, Abd- 
el-Kader received three siege-pieces and a supply of ammuni- 
tion from his French allies. On November 17 Tejini 
surrendered. His town was razed to the ground. Two of 
the Beni-Arasch tribes at once sent in their tribute. The 
other tribes still refused. 

Abd-el-Kader then returned to Mascara, and prepared for 
another expedition, as it was of vital importance to enforce 
obedience. In a few weeks' time, five thousand cavalry 
were ready to start. It was the depth of winter. Each 
man carried only a bag of wheat and a bag of barley. There 
were no mules or tents. After a start to the north-west in 
order to deceive any spies of the tribes, the force, headed by 
the Sultan, bore off south-east, pursuing their way for four 
days and nights, with occasional halts for food and rest. 
At dawn on the fifth day, the vast encampment of the 
Beni-Arasch burst upon the view, stretching away to the 
horizon. More than ten thousand tents covered the plain. 
The Arabs were asleep. A wild, prolonged shout awoke 
them to see a whirlwind of horse rushing on. The women 
and children were spared, but " those dogs," the men, as 
Abd-el-Kader styled them, were charged, chased, and cut 
down by hundreds. The principal sheikhs were taken 
prisoners, and, on their piteous entreaties, were spared from 
death. The tribes were compelled to pay up, on the spot, 
five years' arrears of the regular imposts, and to supply four 
thousand camels and thirty thousand sheep. There was no 
more trouble from the Beni-Arasch tribes \ they became 
Abd-el-Kader's most faithful adherents. 

During the year 1839 tne Sultan was engaged in the 
work of a statesman, legislator, administrator, and reformer, 
displaying wonderful activity, enterprise, vigour, and intel- 
lectual power, as the founder of an empire which, for the 



1 96 Ifoero patriots 

happiness of Algeria, was to be too short-lived. After the 
Tafna Treaty he had received a magnificent present of arms 
from Louis Philippe, King of the French, and, as a man 
who had subdued, either by arms or by persuasive eloquence, 
the hardy, high-spirited Kabyles, he stood high in the estima- 
tion of his fellow Moslem rulers, in Morocco and Egypt, 
Tripoli and Tunis, and of the Ulemas, or bodies of learned 
doctors in divinity and law, at Alexandria and Mecca, who 
watched with joy, and with ardent expectation of yet higher 
things, the career of one who seemed destined to revive the 
pristine glories of Islam. The great Sultan, in order to consoli- 
date his power, both against the French and over the Arabs, 
constructed a number of forts on the limits of the Tell ; 
at Sebdou, on the west ; at Saida, south of Tlemsen ; at 
Tekedemt, south of Mascara ; at Boghar, south of Miliana ; 
to the south of Medea, and to the south-east of Algiers. 
Tekedemt, an old Roman town about sixty miles south-east 
of Oran, was designed to be the capital, as a great centre 
of commerce between the Tell and the Sahara. The first 
stone of the new city and fortress had been laid by the Sultan 
in May 1836, and as the place grew, a population of settlers 
from Mascara, Mostaganem, and other towns, poured in. 
Large stores of warlike munitions were formed, and a factory, 
worked by mechanics from Paris on liberal wages, turned 
out eight new muskets a day. A mint of silver and copper 
coins was established. The defences carried twelve cannon 
and six mortars. A French observer, who was a prisoner 
at the time when the Sultan was personally directing the 
works at Tekedemt, describes his simple costume, like that 
of a labourer ; his large, tall hat, plaited with palm leaves ; 
his " incomparable grace " and " fascinating smile " as he 
saluted the man who was rather a guest than a captive. 

The reforms of Abd-el-Kader included a regular police, 
schools, and local tribunals of justice. All the chief towns 
had factories conducted by Europeans, working in brass and 



Hbfrsd^lka&er anfc tbe Ifcab^les 197 

iron, cotton and wool. The army contained the finest irregular 
cavalry in the world, amounting, with all the contingents from 
the tribes, to about sixty thousand men, only a third of whom, 
however, were ever assembled for any single military operation. 
His regular force comprised eight thousand infantry, two 
thousand cavalry, twenty field-guns, and two hundred and 
forty artillerymen. His great ideal embraced the making the 
Arabs into one nation; the recall of the whole people to a 
strict observance of religious duties ; the inspiring them with 
true patriotism ; the calling forth of all their capabilities for 
war, for commerce, for agriculture, and for mental improve- 
ment; and the crowning of the whole by the impress of 
European civilisation. In laying a foundation for this mighty 
work, he had already overcome vast difficulties by means of 
wonderful enterprise, activity, and vigour. His intellectual 
greatness had caused him to shine as a warrior, diplomatist, 
orator, and statesman. The provinces of Oran and Tittery, 
and the plains of the northern Sahara, had been won by his 
military prowess. A still nobler triumph, in the exhibition of 
moral power, was beheld in his dealings with the region called 
Great Kabylia, the superb range of the Djurjura mountains 
extending eastwards from Algiers. The hardy Kabyles of 
that territory had remained unsubdued amidst the changing 
governments which had risen and fallen around them. As 
independent little republics, bound together by the most 
exalted spirit of freedom, they had ever preserved their 
usages, customs, and laws. In September 1839 Abd-el-Kader, 
attended by only fifty horsemen, suddenly appeared amongst 
them. Thousands gathered around his tent from the valleys 
and fastnesses. He addressed them in a stirring and argu- 
mentative harangue, pointing out union under his standard 
as the only safeguard against French conquest. With loud 
shouts they accepted his faithful khalifa, Ben Salem, as their 
chief in war, and agreed to pay the regular imposts, and to 
go forth to the Djehad. For thirty days the Sultan made a 



i 9 8 Ifoero patriots 

progress through the country, everywhere received with joy 
and enthusiasm as a venerated hadj and marabout, as a 
teacher of the law, as a man of pious life, as a renowned 
warrior and an eloquent preacher. We cannot dwell here on 
his educational and moral reforms, his earnest efforts to 
enforce the teaching of the Koran which was his guide in his 
public and private life. His beneficent intentions were all to 
be frustrated by the ambition of an European nation which 
was to signally fail, not in the work of conquering Abd-el- 
Kader, but in turning her conquest to good account. 

Hastily drawn treaties are a prolific source of war. The 

Treaty of the Tafna was a flagrant example of this class of 

diplomatic documents. There were two drafts : one in Arabic, 

with the Sultan's seal ; the other in French, with Bugeaud's. 

The drafts were not carefully compared. The limits of 

territory assigned to each of the parties were not made clear. 

One instance of the lack of identity in the two forms of the 

instrument will suffice. The French form declared that 

Abd-el-Kader acknowledged the sovereignty of France. The 

Sultan had never dreamed of making an admission which, in 

its effect on the tribes, would have cost him his throne. 

What he had written, in Arabic, in the article which he 

subscribed was, properly translated, " The Emir Abd-el-Kader 

acknowledges that there is a French Sultan, and that he is 

great." A new governor-general, Marshal Valee, had assumed 

his functions at Algiers in November 1837. Disputes arose 

as to the territorial rights of the Sultan under the Tafna 

Treaty, and after vain negotiations and missions to and fro, 

matters were brought to a head by Marshal Valee in the 

dispatch of an expedition to inarch over some disputed ground 

as a demonstration of French power and an assertion of 

French rights. A column under the Due d'Orleans started 

from Milah, in the province of Constantine, lately conquered 

by the French, to march across the disputed territory and 

thence onwards. A way was gained through a formidable 



ffrencb XTreacberp 199 

pass called the "Iron Gates," in October, 1839, by a simple 
process. The defile was one which a few hundred men 
could have held against any force, but the Kabyle sheikhs 
were shown passports, bearing Abd-el-Kader's seal, authorising 
the passage of French troops. The seal of the Sultan had 
been forged. On November 1 Valee and the French prince 
made a triumphant entry into Algiers, after this despicable 
piece of treachery, and were saluted as the heroes of the 
"Iron Gates.''' 

The news reached Abd-el-Kader at Tekedemt. He sprang 
on his horse, and in forty-eight hours, riding night and day, 
he was at Medea, whence he dispatched a reproachful and 
defiant letter to the French governor. He called the tribes- 
men to arms, formally declared war, swept down on the plains, 
destroyed the French cantonments, agricultural establishments, 
and outposts ; slew many colonists, burnt the villages, and 
drove panic-stricken fugitives headlong into the city of Algiers. 
The French government then ostentatiously declared the 
adoption of a firm policy and announced Algeria to be 
" henceforth and for ever a French province." Reinforcements 
were rapidly sent to Algiers, and the effective army of Valee 
was soon raised to thirty thousand men. The Sultan headed 
about the same number of cavalry, regular and irregular, and 
six thousand regular infantry. A fair trial of strength, French- 
man against Arab, was now to be made. 

Concentrating his army at Blidah, at the foot of the lesser 
Atlas range, the French marshal marched on Medea and 
Miliana. The river Chiffa was passed on April 27, 1840. 
The Sultan's cavalry appeared in large numbers. By a feigned 
movement, Abd-el-Kader induced his enemy to enter the 
mountains by the gorges of the Monzaia, which he had spent 
months in fortifying. Every eminence useful for the purpose 
was cut into entrenchments. A redoubt with heavy batteries 
crowned the highest peak. Near this were placed his regular 
infantry, officered by French deserters. Arabs and Kabyles 



2oo ffoero ipaMots 

swarmed in all directions, and, crouching in nooks, were ready 
to open fire on the French army as it wound its way with 
steady march along the narrow causeway which hung midway 
on the mountain slopes. Valee had divided his force into 
three columns, one of which was led by Lamoriciere, a man 
to become famous in Algerian warfare. The Sultan was now 
to see the value of French infantry. To the astonishment of 
the Arabs, the enemy, leaving the road, came darting over the 
steeps. Ravines, woods, and rocks were all mastered in the 
rush. Slowly but surely they were reaching the entrenchments, 
when a thick veil came over the scene from the smoke of 
incessant fire. The mist rolled away before the breeze sweep- 
ing through the pass, and the combatants met and fought 
hand to hand. The Arabs and Kabyles clung desperately to 
their places of shelter, but the French clambered up, grasping 
at shrubs and branches, ever winning their way. Abd-el- 
Kader made a last stand in person at the great redoubt, while 
his regulars and masses of Kabyles gathered round him. The 
converging columns of the French came creeping on amid the 
roll of drums and the clang of trumpets. The Arabs, 
bewildered by foes attacking them both in front and rear, 
wavered, broke, and fled. Lamoriciere and his Zouaves, 
Changarnier and the Second Light Infantry, burst over the 
entrenchments, and the tricolour waved on the summit of the 
Atlas. 

Abd-el-Kader retreated on Miliana, while the conqueror, 
entering Medea, found it abandoned and half burnt. The 
Sultan had made his last attempt to fight the French on the 
principles of European warfare. His khalifas and chiefs 
were ordered never again to meet the enemy in masses, but 
to harass them in hanging on their flanks and rear, cutting 
their communications, attacking baggage and transports, and 
waging a contest of feigned retreats, ambuscades, and sudden 
sallies in order to bewilder and weary the foe. Miliana was 
evacuated by Abd-el-Kader on Valee's approach, but the 



Bu^eaub's iftew System in Mav 201 

chance of Arab warfare came when the French entered the 
mountain passes. Unceasing attacks, day and night, caused 
severe loss to the lately victorious French, with the capture 
of baggage, and the abandonment of all wounded men. 
The French garrisons in Medea and Miliana were soon 
reduced to want by blockade of the surrounding country, 
and by October 1840 the garrison of Miliana had almost 
disappeared from fever and famine. Out of fifteen hundred 
men, the half had perished, five hundred were in hospital, 
and the remainder were haggard wretches who could 
hardly hold their muskets. Such was the warfare in the 
mountains of the province of Tittery, and Abd-el-Kader by his 
swift movements kept the enemy ever on the alert, and often 
in trouble, from the frontiers of Morocco to those of Tunis. 

The real and decisive struggle began early in 1841. The 
right man was at last found by the French to deal with the 
hitherto indomitable Sultan of Tittery and Oran. The gov- 
ernment at Paris had begun, in some sort, to understand 
the power of their formidable adversary, and a serious effort 
was to be made. On February 22, 1841, General Bugeaud 
assumed office as Governor-General of Algeria. He had now 
come, not in the mood and with the policy of the day when 
he concluded the Treaty of the Tafna, but as one whose 
task it was to crush every rival power in Algeria. For this 
end, eighty-five thousand men were placed under his command. 
Thomas Bugeaud was a man of great ability, and he has the 
credit of devising the only method by which such an antagonist 
as Abd-el-Kader, in such a country, could be subdued. 
Against an adversary so mobile, so full of expedients and 
resource, mobility and incessantly offensive movements 
offered the only chance of success. The French commander 
knew that it was no mere army, but a people in arms, that 
he was to encounter. His forces were at once organised in 
many small, compact columns, each composed of a few 
infantry battalions and two squadrons of horse, with a little 



202 1bevo patriots 

transport train of mules and camels, and two mountain 
howitzers. Picked men alone, acclimatised and used to toil, 
were employed, and they carried nothing but their muskets 
and ammunition, with a little food. These columns were 
placed under the command of such energetic leaders as 
Changarnier and Cavaignac, Canrobert and Pelissier, Bedeau 
and Lamoriciere, St. Arnaud and the Due d'Aumale. 

The campaign opened with the re-victualling of Medea and 
Miliana, with great losses to the French, as Abd-el-Kader 
disputed every inch of the ground. Bugeaud, personally 
operating in Oran, reached Tekedemt on May 25, and found 
it deserted and in flames. Boghar, Saida, and other for- 
tresses were successively destroyed. The enemies of the 
Sultan were paying a heavy price for success. At the end 
of 1 84 1 Bugeaud, out of sixty thousand men in the field, 
had only four thousand fit for duty. The rest had perished, 
or were invalided for the time, from the toil of marches, 
incessant fighting, and the heat of the climate. The French 
government's proposals of peace, on certain terms, only 
confirmed Abd-el-Kader in his resolve to try the extremities 
of war. 

Bugeaud's main object was to establish permanent centres 
of action in the very heart of the Arab confederation of tribes, 
and, by rapidly consecutive expeditions radiating from these 
centres, to give his troops the ubiquity of Abd-el-Kader's 
forces. The chief seat of the Sultan's power was the province 
of Oran, and this was made the principal scene of operations. 
Mascara was held by Lamoriciere, Tlemsen by Bedeau. 
Changarnier was in observation on the western frontier of 
the plain of Algiers ; Tittery was menaced by D'Aumale. 
From Oran and Mostaganem three columns were sent forth 
against the tribes occupying the large expanse of territory 
lying between the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean, 
and the tribes extending towards the Sahara. The first force, 
headed by Bugeaud in person, marched along the valley of 



the Cheliff, and then joined the second column under 
Changarnier, coming from Blidah. The third body, under 
Lamoriciere, aimed at pushing Abd-el-Kader back to the 
south, in order to separate him from the tribes assailed by 
Changarnier and Bugeaud. The plan of campaign was for- 
midable for the Arabs, but it was encountered by the Sultan 
with wonderful skill and daring, in a struggle which involved 
some thrilling episodes. Lamoriciere, in his efforts to over- 
take the foe, was constantly baffled. Hearing that Abd-el-Kader 
was before Mascara, he hurried thither by forced marches, 
only to find that his enemy had passed by his rear and was 
raiding a tribe friendly to the French. Pursuing in the new 
direction, the French leader was out-manoeuvred by the 
Sultan's bold and rapid dash across the Cheliff, placing his 
Arabs between Bugeaud and the sea, and recovering his 
ascendency over the tribes in that region. Abd-el-Kader 
then swept in a razzia to the south of Miliana, and soon 
appeared, in full force, in the Sahara, as the bewildered French 
pursuers returned, in despair of reaching him, to their canton- 
ments. This is a sample of the evolutions by which genius 
made amends for inferiority of force. The ablest military 
combinations were rendered abortive by an enemy that was 
ever slipping between columns, flitting in the front, hovering 
on the flanks, assailing the rear, and, with perfect knowledge 
of the country, was sometimes in the mountains, and, again, 
in the plains, ubiquitous, unattainable for serious conflict. 

Abd-el-Kader, leaving his khalifas to maintain this exasper- 
ating species of warfare in the province of Oran, made for 
the frontiers of Morocco. There many tribes had submitted 
under the influence of Bedeau's military and diplomatic skill. 
The Sultan's communications with the country whence he 
drew his weapons, clothing, and ammunition, were seriously 
threatened. His appearance at once brought back the 
Kabyles of Nedrouma to their allegiance, and their example 
was followed by other tribes, with the result that his army 



2o 4 ibero patriots 

was increased to the number of three thousand cavalry and 
five thousand infantry. Able now to confront the enemy, 
Abd-el-Kader, during the months of March and April 1842, 
had frequent encounters with Bedeau. The issue was yet 
indecisive when the Sultan was called away to Mascara to 
deal with Lamoriciere, who had been gaining ground and 
winning over tribes, including even a large part of Abd-el- 
Kader's own people, the Hashems. Lamoriciere, believing 
the Sultan to be still engaged with Bedeau, had marched 
towards the Sahara, and Abd-el-Kader, by a mingling of 
severe punishment and mild treatment, regained most of his 
old authority. Lamoriciere, on receiving the news of his 
presence, hastened back to find his recent work undone, 
and to be assailed by the tribes who had so lately joined 
him. Fighting his way bravely on to an encounter with the 
great leader of the Arabs, the French general heard of him 
as in force at Tekedemt. When he reached that place, he 
found that Abd-el-Kader had fallen on Changamier towards 
Miliana. That general, knowing nothing of the Sultan's 
approach, found himself enveloped by a vast force of Arabs 
and Kabyles, regulars and irregulars, horse and foot, led 
on by Abd-el-Kader in person and charging furiously on all 
sides. After two days and nights of incessant battle, in 
which men closed fiercely with pistols, swords, bayonets, and 
yataghans, the Sultan vanished with his force, leaving the 
French too exhausted and crippled by their losses for pursuit. 
Two days later, tidings reached them that he was in the 
Metija, ravaging the plain and carrying terror to the very 
gates of Algiers. Abd-el-Kader then bore away to the Atlas, 
ascended the mountains, penetrated beyond Tittery and 
reached the Sahara, everywhere inspiriting the tribes and 
raising fresh forces. After sweeping over three hundred 
leagues of ground, he returned, in recruited strength and 
new energy, to press upon Lamoriciere and his garrison at 
Mascara with all the rigours of a winter blockade. 



Qhe Smala formefc 205 

In spite of his wonderful efforts, the Sultan could not 
but feel that he was struggling with adverse fortune. The 
enemy, by the seizure of his fixed establishments, had gained 
possession of a large part of his territory and of the strong- 
holds that had contained his stores of war. His regular 
army had almost disappeared, and much of his credit among 
the Arabs had departed. The ketna which was his ancestral 
abode had been laid waste. He could not protect the families 
of his most faithful adherents from constant exposure, in spite 
of all his vigilant activity, to the outrages of the detested 
infidels. In this position, he resolved to remove from the 
scene of warfare those whom it was impossible for him to desert 
with any regard to feelings of religion and humanity. He 
formed his famous Smala, a new and remarkable organisation 
consisting of a gathering of private families. To this moving 
asylum of refuge and safety the Arab tribes sent their 
treasures, their herds, their women and children, their sick 
and aged persons. The Smala was a great travelling capital, 
containing at first more than twenty thousand souls, following 
the Sultan's movements, in advance to the more cultivated 
regions, or in retreat to the Sahara, according to the fluctuations 
of the contest which he was so bravely waging. In the Sahara, 
the tents of the Smala spread to the distant horizon. In the 
Tell, they filled the valley and rose up the slopes of the hills. 
All the arrangements were of military regularity. The 
different deiras, or households, with tents varying in number 
with their dwellers, were distributed into four great encamp- 
ments. Each deira knew its appointed place. Each chief 
had his station marked and his special duties assigned. Four 
tribes were set apart to protect and guide the Smala in its 
wanderings, and the guard was composed of regular troops. 
The existence of this organisation, ever growing in extent, 
became a powerful check on the disaffection of the tribes. 
When the French leaders tempted them with fair promises, 
the warriors bethought them of the pledges — the women, the 



2o6 1bero patriots 

children, the flocks and herds — which were in the Sultan's 
hands. The genius of Abd-el-Kader had created a new and 
widely extended political engine. 

We turn aside for a moment from the achievements of 
the warrior and statesman to record the still nobler deeds 
of Abd-el-Kader as a man of tender and comprehensive 
humanity and compassion. In the spring of 1841 the Sultan 
received a moving letter from the excellent Catholic, and 
catholic-minded, Bishop of Algiers on behalf of a French 
prisoner, whose young wife had made an appeal for his 
intercession. A fitting response was sent, and, in the end, 
on May 21, an exchange of some hundreds of prisoners on 
each side was effected at Sidi Khalifa. The bishop had 
reserved some Arab orphans whose parents had died in 
French captivity. Abd-el-Kader sent a flock of goats, with 
the unweaned kids, for " the nourishment of the little children 
you have adopted, who have lost their mothers." The annals 
of warfare show few parallels to the generous care and tender 
sympathy displayed by this great and good man towards his 
prisoners. He taught, by precept and example, the duty of 
mercy for captives to the semi-savage tribes. Wherever he 
was present, Frenchmen in his power were rather guests than 
prisoners. He often sent them secretly sums of money from 
his privy purse. They were always well clothed and well fed, 
and, strict champion of Islam as he was, he sent a letter to 
the Bishop of Algiers, a kindred spirit, desiring him to dispatch 
a priest to his camp, to be " treated with honour as becomes 
his double character of a man of God and your representative," 
that he might pray with and console the French prisoners, 
correspond with their families and thus procure for them 
money, clothes, books, and other things to soften the unavoid- 
able rigours of their captivity. The only condition made was 
a solemn promise from the priest never to allude in his letters 
to the Sultan's encampments or military movements. One 
day a French prisoner, to whom apostasy had been suggested, 



Hbb^el^lkafcetr's 1bumamt£ 207 

exclaimed in Abd-el-Kader's presence, " As for me, I will 
never renounce my religion. You may cut off my head, but 
make me a renegade, never ! " " Be perfectly easy ; your life is 
sacred with me," cried the Sultan. " I like to hear such 
language. You are a brave and loyal man, and merit my 
esteem. I honour courage in religion more than courage in 
war." He hated the very thought of women becoming the 
victims of warfare, and when the cavalry of one of his Khalifas 
brought him four young women as a brilliant prize, he turned 
away in disgust, with the words, " Lions attack strong animals : 
jackals fall upon the weak." The highest testimony to Abd-el- 
Kader's many magnanimous acts, known only to the French 
superior officers whom he encountered or with whom he 
corresponded, is borne by the words of a general officer : "We 
were obliged to conceal these things as much as we could from 
our soldiers, for if they suspected them we should never have 
got them to fight with the due ardour against Abd-el-Kader." 

Converted, animated, inspired by his noble example, the 
Sultan's chiefs and delegates for the most part showed 
sympathy and kindness to their captive foes. All the offices 
of comfort for the forlorn were discharged by Abd-el-Kader's 
mother, the mild and gentle Leila Zohra. She assumed the 
guardianship of all female prisoners. They occupied a tent 
close to her own. Two of her negro slaves guarded the 
entrances. Every morning they received from her own hands 
presents of oil, butter, meat, and other articles of food. In 
sickness she nursed them with maternal care. 

We must here note, in order to render due honour to our 
subject, that not only did Abd-el-Kader, by his humanity, 
inaugurate a new era in the treatment of prisoners of war 
amongst the Arabs, but it was owing to him that French 
soldiers were ever spared to be prisoners at all. The very 
word " prisoner " had been, until his day of power, unknown 
amongst the savage tribes. The custom had been to show 
no quarter, and to count their vanquished foes by the number 



2o8 1bero patriots 

of heads brought in dangling on their horses' flanks. Abd-el- 
Kader risked a general insurrection in order to effect a change, 
but he went steadily on until he had brought about a moral 
revolution. One of his men, at the beginning of this reform, 
insolently asked, " How much will you give for a prisoner ? " 
"Eight dollars." "And how much for a head cut off?" 
" Twenty-five blows on the soles of the feet." At a grand 
council of all the khalifas, the agas, and the chiefs of tribes, 
three hundred men being present, the Sultan made an oration 
proving from the Koran the duty of sparing surrendered foes, 
and a majority approved his issue of a decree offering a reward 
of eight dollars for every male, and ten dollars for every female, 
French or other Christian prisoner brought in safe and sound. 
Every Arab having such a prisoner was held responsible for 
the good treatment of the captive. Hundreds of copies of the 
decree were made, and distributed throughout all the towns, 
villages, and collections of tents, in Abd-el-Kader's dominions. 
Severe punishment was inflicted in known cases of disobedience, 
and in a short time the French had no longer reason to dread 
falling alive into the hands of the Arabs. 

When the French leaders had learned to appreciate the 
importance of the smala, its capture or dispersal became a 
chief object with all officers from the generals of corps to the 
colonels in charge of detachments. The campaign of 1843 
was opened by Lamoriciere, who occupied Tekedemt. Abd- 
el-Kader, with about fifteen hundred horsemen, watched his 
movements from some neighbouring woods. He knew that 
the French commander's object was the smala, and he 
remained in ambush for twenty days. He and his men lived 
on acorns ; the horses were fed on leaves. One day a stray 
sheep was found. The Sultan would have none of it, and 
said, " Take it to my starving soldiers," as he turned to his 
meal of acorns. Twice was Lamoriciere repulsed in his 
search, and then a traitor revealed the exact place of the 
smalcCs encampment. Lamoriciere remained to occupy the 



XTbe Smala broken up 209 

attention of Abd-el-Kader, and the French column stationed 
at Medea was selected for the attack. The leadership was 
entrusted to the Due d'Aumale, and on May 10, 1843, ne 
started from Boghar with thirteen hundred infantry, six 
hundred horse, and two field-guns. The indicated place of 
encampment was found empty, and the French column 
wandered about in uncertain fashion. At break of day on 
May 16 the traitor made known the new spot of the smalcCs 
halt, and D'Aumale at once daringly advanced with his 
cavalry alone. The surprise created a panic among the 
people. The guard of five hundred regulars fired a volley 
and fled. A handful of the Hashem tribe bravely strove 
to stem the torrent, but they were swept away in the rout, 
and in an hour all was over. The smala was broken up 
amidst scenes of terrible confusion and despair, including 
the extraordinary sight of a promiscuous mass of camels, 
dromedaries, horses, mules, oxen, and sheep, careering and 
plunging on the plain. There was little bloodshed, but the 
French victors were in possession of hostages of the utmost 
value in the families of Abd-el-Kader's most influential chiefs. 
His own family had escaped. The booty taken was immense, 
comprising thousands of animals ; the Sultan's valuable library 
of rare Arabic manuscripts ; the military chest containing 
some millions of francs ; and the chests of his khalifas and 
other high officers, filled with gold and silver coins and 
costly jewellery. The French soldiers baled out dollars 
and doubloons in their shakos, and filled their haversacks 
with diamonds and pearls. 

This dreadful blow, when the news reached him in the 
woods where he watched near Lamoriciere's command, almost 
overwhelmed, for a time, even the exalted and undaunted 
spirit of the Sultan. He spent some hours alone in his 
tent, in meditation and prayer. He came forth with a smile 
and addressed his chiefs, his officers and men, as they stood 
outside in groups, some downcast and silent, some bitterly 

14 



210 1bero patriots 

cursing their foe and fate. He reminded them that the 
dear objects now lost had impeded the movements of the 
holy war against the infidels ; that those who had fallen 
were now in Paradise. On the next day he wrote to his 
khalifas, bidding them not to be discouraged ; they would 
thenceforth be lighter and in better order for war. In fact, 
at the time of the Due d'Aumale's attack, the population 
of the smala amounted to not less than sixty thousand. 
Not more than three thousand prisoners were taken ; the 
rest of the Arabs were dispersed in all directions. Some 
fell among Arab tribes who plundered them ; others were 
overtaken by Lamoriciere. The blow was, on the whole, 
irreparable in its effects upon the influence of the Sultan. 
Every day brought tidings of the defection of some great 
tribe. The ranks of his enemies were swelled by large 
contingents of Arabs. 

Worse things were in store for the brave man contending 
with ill-fortune. His ablest khalifas were removed by captivity 
or death in action ; the distant provinces fell a prey to the 
foe. The province of Oran became the scene of a desperate 
struggle. With a chosen and devoted band of five thousand 
men, Abd-el-Kader made his presence felt at all points. Now 
he fell on recreant tribes ; now he made head against the 
French columns. Ever in the van, leading on the charge, 
plunging into the thickest of the fight, by his example he 
encouraged and inspired his followers. His bravest warriors 
fell around him ; his horses were slain under him ; his 
burnous was torn with bullets ; but still he fought on. The 
world's records can show no more brilliant instance of almost 
superhuman heroism. Once he was taken unawares. On 
September 23, 1843, he was encamped near Sidi Yoosuf 
with a battalion of infantry and five hundred irregular horse. 
A spy made known his position to Lamoriciere, who was at 
a distance of six leagues. The French general at once led 
out in person the 2nd Chasseurs d'Afrique. A night's march 



Bbfc*el*1kafcer in Difficulties 211 

covered the intervening space, and the spot was reached 
in the grey of dawn. The Sultan was aroused from sleep 
by cries of " The French ! the French ! " He had barely 
time to mount. He might have escaped, but he preferred 
the risk of death to the double stain of surprise and flight. 
His infantry seized their arms and fired a volley, his cavalry 
rallied at his voice. Then, as the smoke slowly rolled away, 
he dashed into the French chasseurs, dispersed them by the 
sudden shock, and after a few minutes' hard fighting drew 
off his whole force in perfect order. 

The Beni-Amers, the men whose four thousand sabres had 
waved in exultation around the young leader of the Djehad ; 
the men whose splendid courage had opened before him the 
path of glory and of empire, had gone over to the French. 
Abd-el-Kader resolved to attack them. Suddenly descend- 
ing upon them, he swept through their encampments, slew 
numbers, and carried off a great booty. A French battalion 
stationed amongst them vainly strove to arrest his progress. 
An Arab chief, one of his old followers, boldly singled him 
out, rode up, and fired at him point blank. The ball missed, 
and Abd-el-Kader shot the traitor dead with his pistol. 

The Sultan knew that all was lost, unless he could obtain 
external aid. The smala was now reduced to his own deira, 
a bare thousand souls, wandering about in miserable fashion. 
After another desperate engagement with Lamoriciere, during 
which the Arab women cheered on the warriors, and Abd-el- 
Kader and his men, fighting in the presence of their wives 
and children, performed new prodigies of valour, he succeeded 
in safely establishing the non-combatants on the territory of 
Morocco. At this time, as the Sultan knew, political relations 
between France and England had an aspect threatening war. 
He sent an embassy to England, with a letter to the Queen, 
holding out the prospect of an alliance with the Arabs, as 
an independent nation, which would present an impassable 
barrier to French aggrandisement in Africa. The letter was, 



212 1bero patriots 

of course, placed in the hands of the Prime Minister, Sir 
Robert Peel. The Foreign Secretary at this time was the 
Earl of Aberdeen, the man whose timid irresolution, at a later 
date, let his country drift into the costly and useless Crimean 
War. An interview with the Queen was sought by Abd-el- 
Kader's agent, and refused. An answer to his letter was 
promised, but was never sent. A like fruitless application 
was made to the Sultan of Turkey. The Arab leader next 
turned to the Sultan of Morocco, pointing out the common 
danger from French ambition; but he met with no support. 
Abd-el-Kader then, summoning a few faithful followers, dis- 
appeared for some months in the Sahara. 

Bugeaud, now become a marshal, wrote to his government, 
declaring that all serious warfare was finished. In the summer 
of 1844, the violation of Abderrahman's territory by French 
troops under Lamoriciere and Bedeau led to some warfare, 
in which the Morocco troops were twice defeated. The 
people of the country were strongly in favour of Abd-el- 
Kader ; and when their Sultan, after a French bombardment 
of Tangiers and Mogador, made a treaty with France, by 
which the Algerian hero was "placed beyond the pale of 
the law throughout the empire of Morocco, as well as in 
Algeria " ; and was to be " pursued by main force by the 
Moroccans on their own territory," the Moorish population 
were filled with resentment. Letters reached Abd-el-Kader 
from Fez, the capital, dictated and signed by the first grandees 
in the state, both civil and military, and from the commercial 
classes, inviting him to ascend the throne of his ancestors. 
Had be been a mere adventurer or usurper, he might have 
lived henceforth, and died, emperor of Morocco. But his 
whole soul was patriotically bent on one object, the freedom 
and independence of Algeria. He disdained to wear a 
borrowed crown. As he afterwards declared, " his religion 
forbade him to injure a sovereign chosen and appointed 
by God/' 



Buaeaufc again In fftelfc 213 

During the year 1844 the Sultan had made a rapid incursion 
into the Tell, everywhere appealing to the tribes ; but he found 
the national spirit overawed by the presence of French detach- 
ments in all directions, and he returned to his deira in 
despondent spirit. He now received appeals from some of 
his devoted khalifas to undertake a fresh campaign, especially 
from the loyal and chivalrous Ben Salem, who dwelt in the 
gorges of the Djurjura mountains, a locality already seen in this 
narrative. To him Abd-el-Kader replied, promising to come 
" as soon as affairs in the west were settled." Months passed 
away, and the Arab tribes who had submitted began to feel 
the pressure of French domination, and to resent the 
supercilious conduct of French officials. In the spring of 
1845, their former Sultan reappeared. He swept down into 
the valley of the Tafna, and routed and cut to pieces a French 
detachment. In this action the lower part of his right ear 
was carried away by a musket-ball, the only wound which 
he ever received. Another detachment of six hundred men 
laid down their arms without firing a shot. Some stir was 
made among the Arabs by these successes, and the French 
commanders took alarm. Lamoriciere, Cavaignac, and Bedeau 
wrote pressing letters for reinforcements, and urged the return 
of Bugeaud. The most formidable foe of Abd-el-Kader 
reached the scene of action in October 1845, bringing fresh 
forces, and in a week he took the field at the head of a 
hundred and twenty thousand men. This fact is the highest 
eulogy that can be accorded to the military prowess of the man 
who so long defied the power of France. 

The great army was broken up into fourteen divisions, or 
flying columns, each complete in infantry, cavalry, and artillery, 
and these bodies of troops scoured Algeria in every direction, 
some acting in concert, others independently, and crushing 
out all resistance with fire and sword. Men were slain 
without mercy, houses burnt, crops fired, fugitives smothered 
alive in caves. One body, styled " The Infernal Column," 



2i4 1bero patriots 

was led by St. Arnaud, a man of evil renown in later days 
in Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat of December 1851. About 
this time, before the French columns started on their conquer- 
ing and devastating career, Abd-el-Kader carried his standards 
into the plains of Mascara. There he was hailed with all the 
old enthusiasm. The tribes which had submitted to the 
French gathered round him. A sortie of the garrison at 
Mascara was repulsed with loss, and two French entrenched 
camps were strictly blockaded. Adopting his old tactics of 
irregular warfare, the Sultan advanced to Tekedemt with six 
thousand cavalry, and prepared to descend into the valley of 
the Cheliff, when he heard of an important tribe, the Beni- 
Shaib, as about to join the French. Their region lay a hundred 
and fifty miles off to the south, but Abd-el-Kader soon swooped 
down on them, seized their chiefs, carried off their flocks and 
emptied their coffers. 

As soon as the French commanders heard of the Sultan's 
presence in the Tell, a movement of concentration was made. 
Columns under Lamoriciere, Bedeau, Marcey, and Yoosuf, an 
Arab officer of much ability in the French service, were all 
set in motion. Lamoriciere first came up with the destined 
prey on December 1, 1845. Abd-el-Kader was protecting 
the emigration of several tribes who, under his direction, were 
withdrawing into the desert. At a signal-gun from Lamoriciere 
the three other French divisions hurried up ; but not so quickly 
as to catch the Sultan. He was always admirably served by 
spies, and he had received notice in time to foil the foe. 
Within forty-eight hours he was far away in the Ouarensis 
country. Bugeaud, Lamoriciere, Yoosuf, and St. Arnaud 
followed him with all speed, but their enemy for some weeks 
led them a fruitless dance through the valleys of the Cheliff. 
This campaign ended with Abd-el-Kader's slipping between 
the columns of Bugeaud and Lamoriciere, making a razzia on 
the Beni-Esdama, a recreant tribe between Mascara and 
Tekedemt, carrying off all their cattle and abundance of 



Campaign of 1846 215 

wheat and barley, and retiring without loss into the Sahara. 
He now conceived the daring project of visiting the Djurjwa 
mountains, rousing the Kabyles and making a dash into the 
Metija plain. 

The Sultan left the Sahara in February 1846, followed by 
part of the Beni-Hassan tribe ; passed to the east of Medea, 
made a razzia, on the way, on a recreant tribe, and reached 
the appointed region, where the Kabyles stood ready for 
his bidding. With five thousand warriors, he swept down 
into the plains, ravaged and destroyed the French colonies, 
and advanced to within four hours of the city of Algiers. The 
French generals were all the while looking for him in the 
high ground of the Tell. In the same month, however, 
while he was engaged in midnight prayer in his encampment 
at the foot of the Djurjura, the French came upon him. He 
sprang on his horse and called on his men. The Chasseurs 
closed around him. He fought with them single-handed, 
until two horses were shot under him. He then stood his 
ground on foot, and at last escaped in the confusion and 
gloom. On February 28 Abd-el-Kader summoned a council 
of war, which was attended by deputies from all the Kabyle 
tribes. News of Bugeaud's advance with large forces arrived 
during the discussion, and a majority voted for submission. 

The Sultan then left them to their own devices, and in 
a few hours was far away. On March 7, near Bayhan, he 
surprised, routed, and plundered some Douairs who had 
joined the French, with his body-guard of two thousand 
horse, and carried off a vast booty, borne by all the mules 
and camels of the defeated tribesmen. The victor made 
for the Sahara, and on March 13, as he brought up the 
rear-guard with seventy men, he was overtaken and attacked 
by General Yoosuf. The ground was open, greatly to the 
advantage of the French. Abd-el-Kader was conspicuous on 
a white charger. Alternately firing and charging, he kept 
the enemy at bay, until forty of his men had been slain 



216 Ibero patriots 

in desperate fight ; and at length, after displaying his usual 
wondrous valour, the Sultan vanished from the view in a 
defile. At a later day in Paris, Yoosuf expressed to the 
hero the admiration aroused in him and his followers by 
the Sultan's conduct on that day. 

In the Sahara, where Abd-el-Kader had hoped to recruit 
his forces amongst the tribes, he found that the French 
had forestalled him. Their columns and detachments were 
everywhere felt. The tribes from whose resources the Sultan 
had long supplied his wants had been forced to submit. 
Everywhere he met nothing but weariness and despair. With 
his faithful escort he returned to his deira in Morocco. The 
French demanded his immediate expulsion, and Abderrah- 
man dispatched an order for his withdrawal from Moorish 
territory. On his refusal, the Moorish tribes, under their 
sovereign's orders, refused to sell provisions to Abd-el-Kader, 
and his foraging parties were attacked and robbed. After 
patient endurance for six months, the exile assumed a hostile 
attitude, and patrolled the country with his body-guard of 
twelve hundred cavalry and eight hundred infantry. The 
Moorish aggressors were severely chastised, and again supplies 
poured in. Moorish tribes increased Abd-el-Kader's military 
force, and in July 1847, when the deira was menaced by 
a large army under Abderrahman's nephew, Mouley Hashem, 
the Arab leader fell upon his camp by night, routed the 
whole force, and captured a large booty, including two 
thousand pounds in English gold. On his return to camp, 
he found that a tribe had carried off all his camels. Without 
a moment's repose, he pursued the marauders, slew over 
a hundred men, and captured all their sheikhs. These 
successes made a fresh stir in the Moorish empire, and 
some emigrant Algerian tribes, located by Abderrahman's 
order within three days' march of Fez, longed to rejoin their 
adored chief. Amongst these tribes were the Beni-Amer, 
who begged for his presence amongst them. The Moorish 



Bbfc*el*1ka&er in Morocco 217 

Sultan sent a large force, and the tribe, taken unawares, 
was cut to pieces, while the women and children were carried 
away as slaves. 

The end of the great career was rapidly coming. After 
another vain appeal to the Moorish ruler, even Abd-el-Kader 
felt that all was lost. A French writer, in the Biographie 
Generate, truly declares, " The greatness of the man was 
strikingly displayed in the very hour of his downfall. 
Destitute of resources, surrounded by foes, at open enmity 
with the Emperor of Morocco, wandering like a hunted lion, 
with hardly any comrade but his horse, no shelter except his 
tent, Abd-el-Kader still inspired a terror which forced his 
enemies to keep a great army on foot in Algeria for protection 
against possible attacks at his hand." In his deira, at this 
time, all was despondency and grief. His own brothers 
had abandoned him. Ben Salem, the faithful, long-tried, 
devoted friend and follower, was a voluntary prisoner in 
the French camp, Abd-el-Kader's whole force was under 
two thousand men, but among these were twelve hundred 
horsemen, the flower of the Algerian cavalry. Most of them 
had been his inseparable comrades, partakers in all his 
hardships and dangers throughout his career. During a 
short period of rest, he summoned them daily around him, 
and aroused new enthusiasm among the bronzed veterans 
by his eloquent words. 

On December 9, 1847, tne deira was stationed on Moorish 
territory, at Agueddin, on the left bank of the Melouia. 
It comprised in all about five thousand souls. On the next 
day, news arrived that a great Moorish host under the Sultan's 
two sons was only three hours' march away. On January n 
Abd-el-Kader gathered his armed force, started at dead of 
night, and fell furiously on the first division of Moors and 
Arabs. The slumbering foe awoke to see the thick darkness 
illumined by flashes of light from muskets. Seized with 
panic, the men rushed away in all directions, abandoning 



218 ibero patriots 

arms, tents, and baggage. In the meantime, Abd-el-Kader 
and his men swept onwards, and attacked the second 
division, which was also defeated and dispersed. In half 
an hour the third division was reached. This force had 
time to prepare for defence, and the assailants withdrew 
before a steady fire of infantry and artillery to an adjacent 
hill. At midday five thousand Moorish cavalry moved out 
against Abd-el-Kader's little army. At charging distance, 
he led on his men, swept through the foe, and by a skilful 
combination of assault and retreat, regained his deira, by 
the river Melouia, before sunset. The deira had nearly 
effected its passage across the river, with the baggage and 
the spoils taken from the enemy, when the Moorish army 
was seen cautiously advancing. The situation was full of 
peril. The deira had never been so exposed. The 
ammunition was expended, and the infantry were thus counted 
out of fight. Abd-el-Kader could only depend on his " Old 
Guard," his matchless cavalry. At length the Melouia was 
passed, and though the foe were pressing on, he would not 
leave its banks until the non-combatants had gained a full 
hour in advance. Then the deira crossed another stream, 
and reached a place of safety, for the time, on French 
territory. Not a life had been lost, not a beast of burden, 
of all that crowd of men, women, children, and animals. 
Coolness, intrepidity, and skill had been their protectors. 
Of the fighting men, however, more than two hundred 
had been slain, and nearly all the rest were suffering from 
wounds. 

Abd-el-Kader now turned towards the hills, inhabited by a 
tribe which still, in part, adhered to him. His horsemen 
followed him in anxious silence, suffering and exhausted. 
The rain fell in torrents. Their chief was tormented by 
conflicting thoughts. A French camp was visible in the 
distance, three hours' march away, occupying a pass. He and 
his cavalry might yet escape, by narrow defiles, into the 



Hb£>*el*1ka&er surrenders 219 

Sahara. But what of his aged mother, his wife and children, 
his helpless followers, in the deira} All would become 
captives to the foe. He called his men around him, and 
reminded them of the oath which, eight years before, on the 
renewal of the war, they had taken at Medea, that they would 
never forsake him in any danger or suffering. All declared 
themselves ready still to adhere to it. He set before them the 
peril of the people in the deira, and suggested submission. 
All the warriors cried, " Perish women and children so long as 
you are safe and able to renew the battles of God. You are 
our head, our Sultan ; fight or surrender, as you will, we will 
follow you wherever you choose to lead." After a few 
moments' pause, Abd-el-Kader declared that the struggle was 
over. The tribes were tired of the war, and there was nothing 
left but submission. He would ask the French for a safe- 
conduct for himself and his family, and for all who chose to 
follow him, to another Mussulman country. The universal 
answer was, " Sultan, let your will be done." 

The incessant rain rendered it impossible to write down any 
terms. Abd-el-Kader therefore affixed his seal to a piece of 
paper, and dispatched it, in charge of two horsemen, to the 
French general, as a sign of authorisation on his part for 
demands to be verbally made. It was Lamoriciere who received 
the two emissaries ; and he sent a verbal reply, acceding to 
all proposals. Abd-el-Kader then sent a letter, and received 
in reply a written promise and stipulation that the Sultan and 
his family should be conducted to St. Jean d'Acre or 
Alexandria. The new governor-general, the Due d'Aumale, 
was close at hand, and on the evening of December 23, 1847, 
the fallen hero, attended by some of his chiefs and men, 
escorted by five hundred French cavalry, who showed great 
respect and sympathy for the captives, arrived at head-quarters. 
Abd-el-Kader, attended by Lamoriciere and Cavaignac, was 
presented to the son of Louis Philippe. The prince pledged 
himself that Lamoriciere's promise and stipulation should be 



22o 1bero patriots 

strictly observed. He little knew that his father's throne was 
about to fall, and that the decision as to Abd-el-Kader's fate 
would, within a few weeks, rest in far different hands. The 
ex-Sultan then withdrew to his deira> which had now joined 
the French encampment. 

On the next morning, December 24, the governor-general 
held a review. His honoured prisoner and guest, riding a 
splendid black charger of the purest Arab breed, and sur- 
rounded by his chiefs, awaited his return from the field. 
When the prince approached, Abd-el-Kader dismounted, and 
offered his steed as a present in testimony of his gratitude, and 
expressed the hope that he might always bear his new master 
in safety and happiness. The Due d'Aumale replied, "I 
accept it as a homage rendered to France, the protection of 
which country will henceforth be ever extended towards you, 
and as a sign that the past is forgotten." On December 25 
the Algerian hero embarked, with his family and followers, in 
a French frigate for Toulon. He had seen the last of his 
native land. Lamoriciere accompanied him on board, and 
supplemented his poor resources with a present of four 
thousand francs, receiving Abd-el-Kader's sword in return. 
The Moiiiteur of January 3, 1848, paid a high tribute to the 
genius and ascendency of the captive in the words, " The 
subjugation of Abd-el-Kader is an event of immense im- 
portance to France. It assures the tranquillity of our con- 
quest. . . . To-day France can, if necessary, transport to 
other quarters the hundred thousand men who hold the 
conquered populations under her yoke." 

With his embarkation for France in the last days of the 
year 1847, the public career of Abd-el-Kader, save for an 
episode thirteen years later, had an end. No more distinguished 
man, none more admirable, was then existing in the world, 
with the sole exception of Arthur, first Duke of Wellington. 
The fallen hero was one who had founded a polity and 
established an empire. In the day of his decline, he had, 



Hb&*el*1kafcer in jfrance 221 

with the most noble and chivalrous self-restraint, refused the 
crown of another empire, offered in sheer admiration of his 
grand display of genius and valour in his efforts on behalf of 
Arab freedom. He had not only waged war with undaunted 
courage and rare ability, he had been conspicuous for good 
faith towards Christian enemies sometimes guilty of base 
deceit. He had taught semi-savage Arabs to be humane to 
captives and to wounded foes. He had succumbed, after a 
struggle of fourteen years, only to overwhelming forces 
directed with consummate skill. He had been always great 
and good in the day of success ; he was sublime in the hour 
of disaster and defeat. Having drawn upon himself the eyes 
of the whole civilised world, he had so borne himself in every 
change of fortune that he was never so highly esteemed by all 
whose respect is worth possessing as when he fell to rise no 
more as a man of political and military power. 

Abd-el-Kader, on his arrival in France, became at once 
the victim of bad faith. He and his family and followers, 
eighty-eight in all, on landing at Toulon, were marched as 
prisoners to the fortress of Lamalgue. On the next day, 
General Daumas arrived, on behalf of Louis Philippe, King 
of the French, to make the most brilliant offers, if the ex-Sultan 
would only consent to forego the solemn promise given to him 
by General Lamoriciere and confirmed by the Due d'Aumale. 
He should have, in that case, a splendid position in France, 
a royal chateau, a guard of honour, all the pomp and sur- 
roundings of a prince. These proposals were contemptuously 
declined. He insisted on "the word which has been so 
solemnly given me. That word I will carry with me to my 
grave. I am your guest. Make me your prisoner if you will ; 
but the shame and ignominy will be with you, not with me." 
A prisoner Abd-el-Kader became, and for four years remained. 
His former subjects had become his companions. He shared 
all with them. One day, in the depth of winter, General 
Daumas found him sitting without a fire. He explained that 



222 1bero patriots 

his stock of wood had been finished on the previous day, 
and he could not ask of his companions. "Poor fellows, in 
place of taking from them, I wish it were always in my power 
to bestow." On February 28, 1848, came the news of the 
third French revolution, the abdication of the king, and the 
proclamation of the Republic. An emissary of the Provisional 
Government came to ask what guarantees the prisoner could 
give to France that he would not appear again in Algeria. 
Abd-el-Kader then sent a letter solemnly pledging himself 
"never henceforward to excite troubles against the French, 
either in person, or by letters, or by any other means what- 
soever," on his oath " before God, by Mohammed (praise and 
salutation be to him !), by Abraham, Moses, and Jesus Christ, 
by the Pentateuch, the Gospel, and the Koran. I make this 
oath with my heart as well as with my hand and tongue." 
The document ended with the signatures of all his companions 
who could write, and with his own assurance on behalf of 
the rest. 

The reply to this letter came from the new Republic. It 
was declared that " the Republic considered itself bound by 
no obligation to Abd-el-Kader, and that it took him as the 
previous Government had left him — a prisoner." The noble 
captive sank into despondency, afflicted not for himself, but 
by the tears of his aged mother and the women of her house- 
hold, and by the lamentations of the men around him. In 
April 1848 they were all removed to the Chateau of Pau. 
Believing himself to be a prisoner for life, Abd-el-Kader soon 
recovered his old composure. He was visited by crowds of 
people — including statesmen, diplomatists, and warriors — from 
all parts of France, impelled by feelings of curiosity, sympathy, 
and admiration ; and, in his courtesy, he received them at 
levees which sometimes lasted for hours. None heard from 
his lips any upbraidings for his treatment; all were charmed 
by the loftiness and originality of his converse, the felicity of 
his compliments, and the delicacy of his allusions to past 



Hbfc*el*1ka&er a Captive 223 

events. His constant attendant was General Daumas, who 
regarded him with profound admiration and esteem. Among 
other visitors was the ex-Sultan's friend Monseigneur Dupuch, 
Bishop of Algiers. The continued succession of pilgrims to 
the Chateau of Pau became at last fatiguing, and the hours 
of reception were restricted. The illustrious captive suffered 
much in spirit, and he passed many hours in fasting and 
prayer. Death took away in succession a son, a daughter, a 
beloved nephew of the highest promise, and several cherished 
comrades. His resignation to the will of Heaven was that 
of a saint. In Algeria he was not forgotten. Some Arab 
chiefs, visiting, at Mostaganem, the stables of the French 
authorities, saw their old leader's splendid black charger, and 
flung themselves upon the steed, kissing his neck, his 
shoulders, his feet, with cries of " It has borne him ! " 

Abd-el-Kader's followers and fellow-captives, in spite of 
his example and his exhortations, gave way to a despairing 
sorrow. The sons of the desert were pining away in their 
novel and dreary abode. At last an order came for their 
release, but none would quit him in his misfortune. In 
June 1848 De Lamoriciere had become Minister of War, 
and the ex-Sultan addressed to him a letter in which he 
solemnly appealed to him to vindicate his own honour, as 
well as the national honour of France. Months elapsed 
without any reply. Abd-el-Kader remained stoically calm, 
but his Algerian companions, in their fury, formed a plot 
to fall upon their guard, and thus find death. Their plan 
was known to him in time for his absolute prohibition. In 
November 1848 all the prisoners were transferred to the 
Chateau of Amboise, near Blois, a castle which was a frequent 
residence of the Valois kings of France, and the birth and 
death place of Charles VIII. The conspiracy of the Algerians 
at Pau had become known, and an order, signed by 
Lamoriciere, forbade Abd-el-Kader or any of his suite to 
have any intercourse with the outward world. No letters 



224 ibero patriots 

could either be written or received, and no visitor could 
be admitted without the express permission of the Minister 
of War. 

The treatment of Abd-el-Kader by Louis Napoleon is the 
brightest spot in that personage's chequered career. He 
had become President of the French Republic in the closing 
days of 1848, and he was the first to raise his voice in 
vindication of the cause of right and justice. On January 
14, 1849, he convened a special council on the subject. 
There he pleaded the prisoner's cause in the warmest terms, 
insisting on his voluntary surrender, his frank reliance on 
French honour, and on the word pledged and the convention 
signed. Bugeaud and Changarnier supported the President's 
views, but they were overruled. Animated by feelings 
of esteem and sympathy for his former adversary, Marshal 
Bugeaud now wrote Abd-el-Kader a letter suggesting that 
he should adopt France as his country, and apply to the 
Government for a grant of property with a right of descent 
to his heirs. He would thus acquire a good position in 
the country, and exist in comfort, with a good prospect for 
his children. The marshal declared, in conclusion, that 
he gave this advice sincerely, actuated by the feelings of 
extraordinary interest raised within him by Abd-el-Kader's 
misfortunes, and by the great qualities with which he had 
been endowed. The prisoner was inflexible in his rejection 
of any compromise. He simply demanded the execution 
of the engagements made with him by a French general 
and the King's son. " I will not," he concluded, " give France 
back her word. I will die with it to her eternal disgrace 
and dishonour ; kings and peoples will then learn, from my 
example, what confidence is to be placed in the word of 
a Frenchman." 

The question of Abd-el-Kader's liberation now appeared to 
be indefinitely postponed. He himself ceased to allude to it, 
and found consolation in his books and devotions. He 



Hbfc*el*1Kat>er IReleasefc 225 

occupied himself also in the composition of two works. One, 
on the " Unity of the Godhead," was a collation and an able 
exposition of all the arguments in support of that vital 
doctrine of the creed of Islam. The other, divided into three 
parts, was entitled " Hints for the Wise, Instruction for the 
Ignorant," and treated successively of the advantages of 
learning ; of religion and morality ; and of the art of writing 
and general science. He declined to take exercise in the 
park surrounding his prison, rarely leaving his apartment, 
except for the room where his family and suite assembled for 
prayer. When his doctor urged the necessity of outdoor 
exercise, he replied, " No health can come to me within the 
bounds of a prison. What I want is the air of liberty ; that 
alone can revive me." 

Time passed on. Louis Napoleon, disgusted with the 
party-jealousies which thwarted his measures, appealed to the 
national sentiment, and, by means which need not here be 
discussed, effected his famous Coup d' Etat, and was elected 
in December 1851 President for ten years. Resolved to 
shew himself to France, he made a provincial tour or "pro- 
gress," and when he arrived at Biois, he sent word to the 
commandant at the Chateau of Amboise that he intended to 
pay Abd-el-Kader a visit. St. Arnaud and other persons in 
his suite, surmising his intentions, suggested caution. The 
prince-president was resolute as to the necessity of vindicating 
the national honour, too long tarnished by breach of faith. 
On October 16, 1852, he drove out to the chateau, and 
announced liberty to the illustrious prisoner. He was to reside 
at Broussa, in Asia Minor, with a pension from the French 
government worthy of his former rank, in perfect reliance on 
his simple word never to interfere in Algerian affairs. Abd-el- 
Kader poured forth his heartfelt thanks. His aged mother 
begged to be allowed to see the generous and noble-minded 
ruler who had shed such joy and consolation through her 
household, and on being presented to I^ouis Napoleon, she 

l 5 



226 Ifoero patriots 

showered on him her benedictions. The prince departed, 
after hastily partaking of the couscoussu, the national dish 
of Algeria, and, as he disappeared in the distance, Abd-el- 
Kader turned to his followers and said, " Others have over- 
thrown and imprisoned me ; Louis Napoleon alone has 
conquered me." The released man was now desirous of doing 
homage to his deliverer in the capital, and, on permission 
received, he arrived in Paris on October 28, 1852. He had a 
great popular reception in the streets, and on the evening of 
his arrival he went to the prince's box at the Grand Opera. 
Abd-el-Kader stooped to kiss his hands, but Louis Napoleon, 
amidst loud applause, embraced him, and then showed the 
most marked attention to the ancient foe of France, as he sat 
by his side, observed of all. Two days later, he visited the 
president at the palace of St. Cloud, and took much interest 
in setting his own watch by a clock in the waiting-room, which 
indicated the exact time of day at Mecca. At his audience 
with the prince, who stood surrounded by his great officers of 
state, Abd-el-Kader, with much emotion, expressed his thanks 
for freedom, and handed in a written promise, containing his 
oath never to return to Algeria. " A benefit," he said therein. 
" is a golden chain thrown over the neck of the noble-minded." 
Louis Napoleon accepted the paper with a protestation that it 
was wholly needless from such a man. 

When he inspected the prince's stud, he admired a 
magnificent white Arab horse. " It is yours," said his host, 
"and you must try it with me in the park to-morrow at a 
review of the cavalry, which I have ordered expressly in your 
honour." At the review, when the prince inquired as to the 
health of the aged mother of his guest, Abd-el-Kader replied 
with animation, "During my captivity she required a staff 
to bear the weight of her body, bent down with years ; but 
since I am free, by your Highness's generosity, she has thrown 
off the weight of years and walks without support." He was 
present at another grand review at Versailles, twice dined with 



Hbfc*el*1Ka&er in parts 227 

the prince, was entertained by all the ministers, and daily 
received visits from statesmen, generals, and men of science. 
He was most gratified, however, by the visits of several officers 
who had formerly been his prisoners, and who had come to 
thank him for the kindness and attention which they had 
received at his hands during their captivity. 

Making visits to all the public edifices of Paris, he entered 
the Church of the Madeleine, and said to the priest who 
accompanied him, " When I first began my struggle with the 
French, I thought they were a people without religion. I 
found out my mistake. At all events, such churches as these 
would soon convince me of my error." He then asked to be 
taken to the residence of his old friend, Monseigneur Dupuch, 
Bishop of Algiers, saying, " Having consecrated my first visit 
to God, the next should be to the best of His servants." At 
the Hotel des Invalides, he was first taken, at his request, to 
the church. He viewed with a soldier's interest the numerous 
flags with which it was adorned. Amongst them were some 
of his own standards. When his eye fell on them, he gazed 
for a while in silence, and then quietly observed, " Those 
times are past. I wish to forget them. Let us always en- 
deavour to live in the present." He paused long at the tomb 
of Napoleon, and spoke of his glory as a great captain. At 
the hospital, an old soldier rose with pain and difficulty from 
his bed, as a mark of respect to the great warrior. Abd-el-Kader 
stopped before him, shook him by the hands, and said, " How 
worthy it is of a great people thus to watch over the old age 
of its brave defenders ! I have seen the tomb of Napoleon, 
and touched his sword; and I should leave this place com- 
pletely happy were it not for the thought that there may be 
some here who have been disabled by me or mine. But I 
only defended my country, and the French, who are just and 
generous, will pardon me, and perhaps admit that I was an 
open and honest enemy, and not altogether unworthy of them." 
After a visit to the Museum of Artillery, the illustrious man 



228 1bero patriots 

went to the imperial printing establishment, and saw the auto- 
graphic press produce a facsimile of the document which he 
had presented to the prince. Seeing the marvellous rapidity 
with which impressions were thrown off, he exclaimed, " Yester- 
day I saw the batteries of war — here I see the batteries of 
thought ! " 

The hour of his departure for the East was at hand. At 
a last interview with Louis Napoleon, the prince announced 
his intention of presenting him with a sword of honour, adding, 
" I wish it to be worthy of you, and I regret that it will not 
be ready before you leave for Broussa." The weapon reached 
Abd-el-Kader in due time, the blade being one of the days 
of the Abbassides, a dynasty that became caliphs of Bagdad 
in the middle of the eighth century. It was inscribed, " The 
Sultan Napoleon the Third, to the Emir Abd-el-Kader, son 
of Mahhi-ed-Din." On the next day, he returned to the 
Chateau of Amboise. On November 21, 1852, the French 
people were called on to elect an emperor, and Abd-el-Kader 
was admitted, at his own request, to the right of voting, 
depositing his ballot in a specially made box, on the anniversary 
of the day on which, twenty years before, he had himself been 
chosen Sultan of the Arabs. He returned to Paris and offered 
his congratulations at the Tuileries on the proclamation of 
the empire. The emperor, as soon as he perceived him 
among the great officers of state and public functionaries, 
advanced and shook hands, saying, " You see your vote has 
brought me good luck." The ever ready Abd-el-Kader replied, 
" Sire, my vote is of no value but as it is the interpreter of my 
heart." 

On December 11 the ex-Sultan, with his family and suite, 
left Amboise for the East, receiving great attentions in all 
the provincial' towns through which he passed. At Lyons, 
Marshal Comte de Castellane gave him a splendid reception. 
A banquet was offered to him, and a review of the garrison 
was held in his honour. As Abd-el-Kader approached the 



Bb&*eMka&er at Broussa 229 

lines, he was saluted with military honours, and, delighted with 
this unlooked-for mark of respect, he cried to his host, " the 
emperor gave me liberty, but you have adorned her with 
garlands." On December 21, he embarked for his final 
destination. When the steamer touched at Sicily, he landed, 
and, with the governor in attendance, he made a tour in the 
interior. From the summit of Etna he viewed the fertile 
plains once held by the Saracens, and in his letter of thanks 
to the governor when he departed, he referred to the Arab 
poet's lament on the evacuation of the island. Abd-el-Kader, 
landing at Constantinople on January 7, 1853, went directly 
to the grand mosque of Tophane, filled with gratitude and joy 
at finding himself once more in a temple of the Prophet. 
The French ambassador gave a splendid entertainment in his 
honour, and this act of hospitality closed for the time his 
social relations with the civilised world. During his passage 
through it, his genius and character had been recognised in 
one long ovation. He was now in a capital where barbarism 
is harlequinised into a constrained semblance of European 
culture. 

On taking up his abode at Broussa, near the Asiatic shore 
of the Sea of Marmora, the ex-Sultan was enabled to live in 
ease and comfort on the life -pension of a hundred thousand 
francs a year settled on him by the munificence of Louis 
Napoleon. Above half of this amount was spent in allowances 
to his most needy chiefs and dependents, in charities to the 
poor, and presents to the mosques. The Turkish government 
had allotted for his residence an old dilapidated khan or 
caravanserai, roofless in many parts. With some difficulty the 
place was made habitable, but it was a wild and gloomy 
abode. Abd-el-Kader bought a small farm in the neighbour- 
hood, to which he escaped at times for a sight of the sun and 
a breath of fresh air. He occupied himself in the education 
of his children, in readings at the mosque, and in private 
study and meditation. He felt himself in a land of strangers. 



230 1bero patriots 

Few around him could speak his language. There could 
be no sympathy between such a man as he was and the 
Turks. The ulemas, or doctors of the law, envied and dis- 
liked him for his superior learning. The effendis, or men 
of the "upper circles" of Turkish society, barely noticed 
him. 

During the three years of this life he longed for a change in 
his place of exile, but was unwilling to ask for it. In 1855, 
however, an earthquake laid most of Broussa in ruins, and he 
obtained permission to go to France. The emperor granted 
all that he desired, and it was arranged that his future 
residence should be at Damascus. It was during his stay in 
Paris that, in September 1855, the news of the fall of 
Sebastopol arrived. He was present at the celebration of the 
Te Deum in Notre Dame, and drew the marked attention of 
the crowded congregation as he advanced to the altar, leaning 
on the arm of one of the marshals. He also visited with 
much interest the International Exhibition. 

On November 24, 1855, Abd-el-Kader reached Beyrout 
with his family and suite, exceeding one hundred persons in 
number, and thence journeyed to Damascus, being received 
by the Druses, on his ascent of the Lebanon, with a long 
rolling fire of musketry in his honour. At the earnest request 
of the chiefs, he remained one night amongst them, and was 
then escorted to the borders of their territory. At Damascus, 
Abd-el-Kader was received by the whole Mohammedan popula- 
tion, lining the road for above a mile outside the gates, in 
holiday attire, in honour of the renowned champion of Islam. 
No such man had entered that oldest city in the world since 
the days of Saladin. The Turkish authorities simply 
endured the presence of a man whose merits they could not 
understand ; whose rank and position, protected by a mightier 
arm than theirs, they could not lower ; whose influence they 
could not undermine, since his moral ascendency defied their 
malice. The day was coming when they would be made to 



Bbfc^eUlfcafcet: at Damascus 231 

understand the power of that illustrious name, backed by a 
display of its bearer's olden valour. 

Abd-el-Kader now had congenial associates around him. 
His old and devoted khalifa, Ben Salem, and some hundreds 
of Algerines, had obtained permission to settle at Damascus, 
and they gazed on their former ruler with delight. To the 
ulemas and the lettered classes he was the great centre of 
attraction by virtue of his triple warrant as collateral descendant 
of the Prophet, as Ulema, and as leader of the Djehad. They 
regarded him with the profoundest reverence. Their ad- 
miration and affection were based on feelings of national 
sympathy and of religious duty. He became the instructor 
of a theological class of sixty students, who daily met in the 
great mosque. He was the most learned Arab then existing, 
and astonished his pupils by choice quotations from the works 
of Plato and Aristotle. 

This peaceful and useful course of life was soon to be 
rudely interrupted by an outbreak of religious fanaticism. 
The Turks had ever viewed the Christians of Syria with 
gloomy jealousy, exasperated by their increase in population, 
wealth, and prosperity. In the Lebanon, the Christians 
observed, with just alarm, the menacing attitude of the 
Druses, and in 1859 tne Y armed themselves to the teeth for 
self-defence. Instructions came from Constantinople that the 
Christians must be " corrected." In Turkish official phraseo- 
logy, the word means " murdered," or else subjection to 
treatment worse than death. In May i860 civil war, 
diligently excited by the Turks, broke out between the Druses 
and Christians. In a few weeks the Lebanon became a vast 
scene of slaughter and conflagration. Many of the Christians 
had been persuaded to give up their arms, and all these were 
promptly massacred by the Druses and by Turkish troops. 
The turn of the Christians at Damascus came in due course. 
Abd-el-Kader, utterly ignorant of the Turco-Druse plot, had 
sent messages to some of the sheikhs, calling upon them to 



232 Ifoero patriots 

exercise moderation in the civil war. Then he heard from 
his Algerines of the intended rising at Damascus. He 
appealed to the ulemas to use their influence, and saw 
Achmet Pasha, the governor, on the subject. He received 
only lying assurances that all the rumours were without 
foundation. 

On July 9, i860, Abd-el-Kader's Algerines came running to 
his house with news that the town had risen. He hurried 
forth with his attendants, and met a furious Turkish mob in 
full career towards the Christian quarter. He drew up with 
his men in the centre of the street. The mob stopped short. 
He harangued them on the wickedness of the crime they 
were about to commit. It was in vain. In three hours' time 
the Christian quarter of Damascus was a waving sheet of fire, 
and the hot blast, fraught with the moans of the tortured and 
the cries of dying victims, swept over the city like a gust 
from hell. Abd-el-Kader had soon gathered round him about 
a thousand of his Algerines, and he rescued large numbers of 
Christians by conducting them to his house, enclosed in a 
guard which no Turks could penetrate. When the number 
grew beyond the room at his disposal, he escorted them all to 
the citadel and handed them over to the care of the Turkish 
guard. The advancing Druses were met by Abd-el-Kader 
and persuaded to turn back. For ten days he continued his 
work of mercy, on one occasion facing a yelling crowd of 
Turks sword in hand, backed by his Algerines, and forcing 
them to withdraw. The European consuls, leaving their 
houses in flames, fled to him with their families on the first 
day. The British consul alone, living in the Mohammedan 
quarter, had thought himself secure. He also needed and 
found the protection of the great Arab, and was saved within 
a few minutes of massacre planned by his Turkish guard. 
From first to last Abd-el-Kader, at that time of horror, saved 
the lives and honour of fifteen thousand Christians by his 
fearless courage, his unwearied activity, his all-embracing 



Ifoonours to Hbfc*el*1kaber 233 

humanity of soul. All the representatives of the Christian 
powers then residing at Damascus, without one single ex- 
ception, owed their lives to him. A strange destiny indeed. 
An Arab had thrown his guardian aegis over the outraged 
majesty of Europe, a descendant of the Prophet had 
sheltered and protected the Church of Christ. 

The Christian powers covered Abd-el-Kader with the most 
distinguished marks of their gratitude and admiration. From 
France came the Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honour; 
from Russia, the Grand Cross of the White Eagle; from 
Prussia, the Grand Cross of the Black Eagle ; from Greece, 
the Grand Cross of the Saviour. Great Britain, having, as 
it seems, no order to which he could be admitted, sent a 
double-barrelled gun, inlaid with gold ; the United States, a 
brace of pistols with like adornments. The Sultan conferred 
the Medjidie of the First Class. The Order of Freemasons 
in France sent a magnificent star. All Mohammedans who 
were not Turks had viewed the Damascus outrages with 
astonishment and abhorrence. It was not the least of the 
honours nobly won by Abd-el-Kader that he received from 
the illustrious hero of the Caucasus, Schamyl, a patriot 
soon to be seen in these pages, an eloquent letter dispatched 
from his place of exile in Russia. In that letter, one great 
man expressed to a compeer his highest admiration for the 
latest achievement of courage in a righteous cause. 

Our task is nearly finished. There was one distinction yet 
to be won by this devoted son of Islam. He longed to be 
styled "the Fellow of the Prophet." This crowning glory 
for the devout Mussulman can only be obtained by a continuous 
residence at Mecca or Medina for two years, or, at least, 
for a period during which two successive pilgrimages have 
arrived at and departed from the holy cities. Abd-el-Kader 
obtained the needful permission from Louis Napoleon, and 
left Damascus in January 1863. After staying a few weeks 
in Cairo, he thence journeyed to Mecca, where he was 



234 t>evo patriots 

received with the highest respect by the ulemas and imams. 
For twelve months he never quitted his hermit's cell, except 
to go to the great mosque. The severity of his fasts told 
even on his frame of iron, and in the spring of 1864 he made 
a visit of relaxation to a town in the hills about fourteen hours' 
journey from Mecca, in a region of flowing streams and 
delightful gardens. Thence he travelled to Medina, where 
he remained for four months, resuming, near the Prophet's 
tomb, the course of life which he had followed at Mecca. He 
had accomplished his vow, and in June 1864 he arrived 
at Alexandria. He was presented with a large landed property 
by the Viceroy of Egypt, and reached Damascus towards 
the end of July. In 1865 he visited Paris and England, 
and saw the Paris Exhibition of 1867. His life closed at 
Damascus on May 26, 1883, amidst the seclusion of the 
studies and devotions in which his early years and his period 
of exile had been chiefly spent. 

We started this narrative with the assertion that the subject 
thereof was one of the most extraordinary men of the 
nineteenth century. We believe we have proved our case. 
The man is now, in his whole character and career, before our 
readers. We may now go further, and say that Abd-el-Kader 
was one of the most remarkable men of modern times. In 
truth, no record like his has come before the world for 
hundreds of years, except that of Napoleon. A young Arab 
in Algeria had devoted himself to the seclusion and religious 
exercises and studies of the cloister. A crisis in his country's 
fate suddenly called him from his retreat to the head of affairs. 
He obeyed the summons, impelled by the sense of duty alone, 
and revealed the possession of matchless courage and of a rare 
genius for organisation and command. He shone with un- 
rivalled splendour as the preacher and leader of a Holy War 
against Christian invaders. He bore up for years against the 
first military power then in the world, with her resources 
distant only three [days by steam from his native shore. 



Hb&*el*1kafcer's Career 235 

During the course of the struggle, he formed an internal 
administration which, rapidly superseding the wildest anarchy, 
gave a pattern of order, regularity, and justice. In his own 
person he presented to his subjects a model of bravery, 
fortitude, activity, persistence, piety, and zeal. In surrendering 
at last to his Christian foes, he became the victim of the 
grossest bad faith. A prince whose genius, like his own, had 
sustained him with unfailing trust and confidence through 
adverse fortunes, overthrew the government which had dealt 
treacherously with the noble-minded prisoner, arrived at 
supreme power, and restored freedom to the captive. The 
brilliant and uncompromising champion of Islam took a high 
place in the Christian world from his achievements in war 
and his personal character. Finally, after slaying many 
thousands of Christians in honourable warfare, defending his 
native land, he saw his breast covered with the emblems of 
some of the highest orders of Christian chivalry, as a reward 
for saving thousands of Christians from the worst kind of 
fanatics in the world of Islam. It would be an insult to Abd- 
el-Kader to compare him, in his moral character, with a man 
like Napoleon. It would be absurd to make a parallel 
between men whose spheres of action were so different in 
circumstances and extent. It was the glory of Abd-el-Kader, 
as it was of Wellington, to have been, throughout his career, 
devoted to duty, without any selfish thought of fame to be 
won in obedience to duty's call. 



CHAPTER VI 
SCHAMYL OF THE CAUCASUS 

1824 — 1859 

The Caucasus in Legend and History — Region as viewed from Mount 
Ararat— The Lofty Peaks— The Rivers— The Two Chief Passes— 
The Fine Scenery — The Various Peoples — First Russian Aggression 
— General Paskiewitch — His Plan of Conquest — Russian Operations 
— Defeat of General Williamenoff— The Campaign of 1 839 — End of 
Warfare in Circassia Proper — Birth and Early Life of Schamyl — 
His Youthful Character and Mental Training — Social and Political 
Condition of Eastern Caucasia — Schamyl's First Appearance in Field 
— His First Escape — Death in Battle of Caucasian Leader — Schamyl's 
Second Escape, with Bad Wound— His Recovery and Appointment 
as Leader — Schamyl's Personal Appearance and Qualifications — The 
Campaign of 1836— Success of Caucasians — Schamyl's "Crusade" — 
General Golovine in Command for Russia — The Siege of Akhulgo — 
Russian Assaults repulsed — Terrible Losses of Assailants — Final 
Success of Russians — Schamyl's Mysterious Escape — His Zealous 
Efforts — Guerilla Warfare maintained — Campaign of 1842 — General 
Grabbe's Advance against Dargo — The Caucasians drive back Enemy 
with Severe Loss — Woronzoff in Command for Russia — His Plan of 
Operations — His Advance on Dargo — Desperate Resistance of Cau- 
casians — Dargo captured — Woronzoff barely rescued — Schamyl's 
Raids — His Daring Campaign in 1846 — Complete Success — Warfare 
of 1847 — Akhulgo captured by 'Russians (1849)— Gradual Decline 
of Caucasian Power — The Crimean War — The Struggle in Caucasus 
resumed — Schamyl at last succumbs — Effect of his Rule in Cau- 
casia — His Honourable Treatment by Russians — His Life at Kaluga 
— Death at Medina — His Lasting Fame. 

THE Caucasian mountain-range, in classical mythology, 
was the scene of the binding and the torture of 
Prometheus for defying Jupiter and conferring a boon on 

236 




SCHAMYL. 



{Face page 236. 



TLhc Caucasus 237 

mankind in stealing from heaven the element of fire. From 
the cavernous depths of the Caucasus, Jason, aided by the 
Colchian enchantress, Medea, bore off the Golden Fleece. 
Through the great Caucasian Pass of Dariel, Cimmerian and 
Scythian hordes poured to desolate the fertile lands of Asia 
Minor. By the Eastern or Caspian Road, hosts of Huns 
swept forward to assail the Roman and the later Persian 
empires. Fiction and fact, mythology and history, have thus 
combined to invest the great snow-clad range with mystery 
and interest. In modern days, the middle decades of the 
nineteenth century saw the waging of a long and heroic 
struggle between the mountaineers and the military might 
of the northern Colossus, Russia. Let us first strive to gain 
a clear view of the picturesque and majestic theatre of the 
contest which we are about to describe. 

Let the reader fancy himself standing, face to the north, on 
the summit of Mount Ararat, in Armenia, about fifty miles 
south of the Caucasian territory. That region, intersected by 
its magnificent mountain-range, lies before him. It is bounded 
to the south by the ancient kingdom of Georgia, now a 
province of Russia ; on the east, by the Caspian Sea, whose 
tideless waters wash the north of Persia ; on the west, by the 
Black Sea, and on the north, by the southern territory of 
Russia in Europe. On the northern side, the mountains rise 
in successive terraces from luxuriant level land covered with 
fine grasses. On the south, the mountain-face is much steeper 
and more abrupt. The Caucasus thus occupies the isthmus 
between the Black Sea and the Caspian, its general direction 
being from north-west to south-east. It has a length of about 
750 miles, with a breadth, including the secondary ranges and 
spurs, of about 150 miles, that of the higher Caucasus, how- 
ever, not exceeding 70. The region is really Asiatic in 
character, though the range is sometimes treated as part of 
the boundary-line between Europe and Asia. The higher 
and central part of the range is formed of parallel chains, not 



238 ibeto patriots 

separated by deep, wide valleys, but connected by high table- 
lands traversed by narrow fissures of vast depth. In this 
quarter, six peaks are well above 16,000 feet in height, 
including Mount Elburz, 18,572 feet, two of about 17,000 
feet, and Kasbek, exceeding 16,500. There the line of 
perpetual snow is between 10,000 and it, 000 feet high, but 
the whole amount of unmelting snow is not great, nor are the 
glaciers very numerous or large. The area covered by the 
mountains is about 56,000 square miles, or nearly that of 
England and Wales. 

The lower part of the Kuban River, rising near the centre 
of the mountains, and flowing northwards in its upper course, 
then turns due west for the Black Sea, and separates the 
Caucasian territory from Russia Proper. The Terek, breaking 
out of the mountains on the same side, far to the south-east 
of the Kuban, flows north-eastwards to the Caspian, forming 
with that sea and the south-eastern end of the range an 
irregular triangle which includes the steppes or plains of 
Daghestan. This roughly drawn outline encloses a country 
of the most varied beauty and grandeur. Some parts are 
entirely destitute of wood, others are covered with dense 
forest, and the secondary ranges near the Black Sea show 
splendid woods of oak, beech, ash, walnut, and maple. 
The plains on the north of the chain, enclosed by the fort- 
dotted Terek and Kuban, are mainly of luxuriant fertility, 
carpeted with vivid green, strewn with woods and groves, 
perfumed by the myrtle and the rose, musical with rich 
strains of the nightingale's song. Orchards and vineyards 
are alternated on the low grounds with cornfields and 
pastures, and the valleys produce rice, cotton, hemp, tobacco, 
and indigo. Grapes and various fleshy fruits, chestnuts and 
figs, grow freely without culture. Among the wild animals 
are the bison, the bear, the wolf, the jackal, and the boar. 

The two chief passes or " gates " through the range are 
those mentioned above — the road leading by the fortress of 



Scenery of Caucasus 239 

Derbend on the shore of the Caspian, and the more important 
Pass of Dariel, about midway between the two seas, where 
the road, reaching a height of 8,000 feet, connects Tiflis, 
in Georgia, by the valley of the Terek, with Vladikavkas, 
a strong fortress at the northern base of the Caucasus. This 
road is about 120 miles long. The defile itself is dreary, 
shut in by precipitous walls of porphyry and schist, from 
3,000 to 4,000 feet in height, with abysses below the road 
as deep as the rock-walls are high. In some parts, huge 
columns of basalt are seen lying, as if hurled hither and 
thither upon the surface of the mountains, or driven into 
their sides, in the sport of Titans, some erect, others more 
or less inclined. 

The enormous range of the Caucasus comprises, in short, 
deep gorges, terrible abysses, impassable swamps, frightful 
rifts, impetuous torrents, extensive pastoral valleys, covered 
with flocks and herds, rich table-lands, well-tilled gardens, 
romantic glens, pleasant and abundant streams. The 
lighting-up of the mountains at summer dawn is a spectacle 
of rare beauty and grandeur, when the pinnacles, towers, and 
domes of rock, faintly pencilled by the earlier rays in shadowy, 
gigantic outline on the eastern sky, kindle into splendour as 
the sun climbs the heavens. The snow-capped summits sparkle 
first with fire, and the landscape soon becomes a fairy-land 
of dazzling sheen relieved by the shadows of the mountain 
rifts, and by the waving trees and verdure at the base. In 
this romantic land it was that Schamyl, the hero-patriot now 
dealt with, shone in a career of courage nowise inferior to 
that of the most famous champions of classical antiquity, and 
waged, for over a quarter of a century, a war for independence, 
worthy of comparison with the most glorious struggles recorded 
in the annals of freedom. 

As regards the people of this region, the Caucasus has 
been called the " Mountain of Languages " from the multiplicity 
of dialects there spoken, in many cases totally distinct from 



2 4 o 1bero patriots 

each other, and generally unconnected with the languages 
of any other part of the globe or race of men. The chief 
races are the Tcherkess, or Circassian, in the west; the 
Kabards, north and east of Mount Elburz; the Chechenz, 
or Tchetchess, on the northern slopes of the eastern Caucasus 
down to the Terek; and the Lesghians, further east and 
south. The Ossetes, or Ossetians, in the centre of Caucasus, 
on both slopes near Mount Kasbek, are Christians ; the 
Lesghians are Mohammedans of a fanatical type. Primitive 
pagan superstitions seem largely to underlie both religious 
professions. The dress of the typical Caucasian warrior 
consisted of a sheepskin cap, a close-fitting frock with loose 
hanging sleeves, fastened by loops in front and with two 
parallel rows of cartridges on the breast. Wide trousers 
came down to shoes of black leather, usually trimmed with 
silver. The weapons carried were a long rifle slung over the 
shoulder, a pistol, and two swords, one like that of the British 
light cavalry, the other the short, straight, Roman sword 
worn in the left girdle. On service, a forked stick was carried, 
to be thrust into the ground as a rifle-rest. 

The Russian government, after the annexation of Georgia 
early in the nineteenth century, made it a great object to 
obtain possession of the intermediate mountain country, but 
it was only after the Treaty of Adrianople, in 1829, in 
which Turkey ceded to Russia her nominal sovereignty over 
the Caucasian tribes, that the efforts of the great northern 
power assumed a systematic form. Before introducing the 
renowned subject of this record, we deal briefly with the 
struggle in the western, or Circassian, portion of the range. 

The Czar Nicholas intrusted the " pacification " of his new 
dominion to an army of a hundred thousand men under 
Field-Marshal Paskiewitch (Paskevitch), an energetic soldier, 
well-versed in the strategy and tactics of modern scientific 
warfare. He had served against Napoleon in the Austerlitz 
campaign, and had taken a prominent part in the momentous 



1Ru55ian 5m>asion 241 

warfare of 1812 to 18 14, in the battles of Smolensk, Borodino, 
and Leipzig. In 1826 he had been commander-in-chief against 
the Persian forces with complete success, attested by his 
conquest of Persian Armenia and his capture of Erivan. In 
the recent struggle against the Turks, he had made two cam- 
paigns in Asia, and taken Kars, Erzerum, and other fortresses. 
The plan formed by the Russian commander in his new charge 
consisted simply in the bridling of the mountaineers by means 
of an encircling and intersecting chain of forts, needing 
garrisons of eighty thousand men. Four new military routes 
across the mountains were to be formed and planted with 
fortresses. One was to run from a point on the Black Sea, 
south of Anapa, to the lower Kuban ; one from a still more 
southerly point on the coast, through the range, to the 
Russian forts on the north near Mount Elburz ; a third 
from Nucha, in the east of Georgia, over the eastern part 
of the chain to the northern side of the mountains ; the 
fourth and last, from a point eastward of Nucha to Derbend, 
on the Caspian. Paskie witch was, however, soon recalled to 
command the Russian forces in Poland during the insurrec- 
tionary war of 1830-31, and the carrying out of his plans was 
intrusted to General Williamenoff. 

That commander, with about twenty thousand troops of all 
arms, specially strong in artillery, the only arm dreaded by the 
Circassians, advanced southwards from the Kuban, by the 
first of the proposed routes, in order to cross the range to 
the Black Sea coast south of Anapa. It was his intention to 
halt at three places on the march in order to erect temporary 
forts or block-houses of timber and sods, proof against 
Circassian rifle bullets. As his vanguard neared the ridge of 
a thickly wooded hill, the men were received with a heavy 
fire, but the enemy were driven off by the Russian guns. 
At about half-way on the route, the gorges of the mountains 
rang with the tumultuous jackal-cries of a host of horsemen 
reinforcing the mountaineers already engaged. A storm of 

16 



242 1bero patriots 

rifle bullets fell on the Russians from front, flanks, and rear, 
and the general, abandoning all idea of halts to make forts, 
gave orders to push forward with all speed, leaving all behind 
save the cannon and small arms. The drums rolled, the 
cavalry bugles rang out, the artillery in front roared, and the 
Muscovite force moved on swiftly through a long, narrow, 
rocky, wooded defile. Hundreds were falling by the fire, 
from bush and crag, of invisible marksmen, the only respite 
coming when a break in the hills compelled the mountaineers 
to make a long circuit, in order to arrive again on the 
flanks of the invading force. When open and more favourable 
ground was reached, the army bivouacked under protection 
of the guns. After a vain and sanguinary attempt to reach 
Anapa, the Russians retired on the route by which they had 
advanced, and reached their quarters on the Kuban, leaving 
from three to four thousand men behind in killed, wounded, 
and missing. 

After a struggle continuing, with alternations of success, for 
several years, great Russian forces succeeded in building the 
three forts planned by Paskiewitch on the first of the above 
routes, and a strict blockade of the coast greatly interfered 
with the reception of supplies of arms and powder by the 
mountaineers. In June 1839 Major-General Kachoutine, 
acting under General Golovine, marched with a brigade of 
infantry, two regiments of Cossacks, and six guns, against the 
Circassian village of Sutchali. A sanguinary contest ensued, 
in which the Russians, by their own account, lost eight 
hundred men. The village was at last captured, and a 
bulletin was issued as for a glorious victory. In the following 
September a fresh Russian army landed on the coast, and 
Golovine, well knowing the real value of the recent success, 
tried to negotiate with the mountaineers on the terms of their 
ceasing from all hostilities, giving hostages, and surrendering 
all deserters and prisoners. These advances were repelled 
with the most insulting contempt, and the defiance " Proceed 



Circassians Successful 243 

with your war and do your worst." The campaign was 
marked by a series of petty victories for the Russians, com- 
bined with humiliating checks, abortive promenades, and 
harassing marches which wore out the spirit and energies 
of the invaders. Golovine then made fresh offers, omitting 
the demand for hostages, and was again repelled, the demand 
of the mountaineers being " the line of the Kuban as frontier 
to the north, and the freedom of the sea-coast." 

The Circassians then assumed the aggressive with great 
success. In a series of dashing exploits, the works which had 
cost their enemies years of labour and a vast sacrifice of men 
and money were swept away. Fort after fort, including the 
three erected on the western route, was stormed in tumultuous 
assaults, and levelled with the ground. The scheme of Paskie- 
witch had to be undertaken anew, and the condition of affairs 
in the south-eastern part of the range compelled General 
Golovine to patch up a truce in the west. The Circassians 
were to remain neutral in respect to the contest in the south- 
east, and Russia was to virtually abandon the sea blockade, 
and to make no attempt to rebuild the demolished forts. 

The outbreak at the other end of the great range had 
proved to be truly formidable, as being kindled and sustained 
by both religious and national enthusiasm, and so admitting 
of neither truce nor compromise. Schamyl, the Abd-el- 
Kader of the Caucasus, was in the field. Ben Mohammed 
Schamyl (i.e., Samuel) Effendi, surnamed "Prince of the 
Faithful," came of a wealthy family of the highest class 
in his country, and was born in 1797 at Himri, an aoul or 
village in the north-west of Daghestan, a triangular territory 
about the size of Belgium to the north-east of the Caucasus, 
and on the western coast of the Caspian Sea. The country 
is generally mountainous, traversed by spurs of the great 
chain. Himri is perched, like an eagle's nest, high on 
a rock projecting from the mountain-side above a beautiful 
valley through which winds the river Koissu. It is approached 



H4 foero patriots 

by a narrow path cut out of the rock and carried zig-zag up 
a height of nearly three hundred feet. The village was 
defended, in Schamyl's day, by a triple wall supported by 
high towers, and is sheltered from above by the overhanging 
mountain-brow. Himri, like the neighbouring fortified aoid 
Akhulgo, is one of the keys of the triangular region of well- 
watered highlands inhabited by warlike tribes known collec- 
tively as Lesghians, to the west of Daghestan and to the south 
of Tchetchenia. This was the region destined to become 
the principal theatre of Schamyl's military achievements. 

The lad was somewhat weakly in early years, but an 
outdoor life and athletic exercises made him a strong, agile 
man, expert in all the arts of a warrior and mountaineer. 
His bodily training included riding, swimming, wrestling, 
dancing, and shooting with the bow, the pistol, and the 
gun. He gave early proofs of rare energy, pride, and strength 
of soul. Defeat in any contest was for him disgrace, 
brooded over for days in sullen discontent. He would be 
first or nothing in every competition. His father, like too 
many of his countrymen, was addicted to drunken habits, 
and, after vain efforts to reclaim him, the lad swore that he 
would kill him himself, if he ever again saw him under the 
influence of strong liquors. Knowing the lad's character, 
the father renounced the use of alcohol, and kept his promise 
to the end of his life twenty years later. One of the chief 
accomplishments of a Caucasian is horsemanship, and in 
this art Schamyl was the rival of the great Arab, Abd-el- 
Kader. He could go at speed on any ground, leap chasms 
of fearful width, cross torrents, hang on the side of his horse 
in avoidance of an enemy's aim, spring to the ground, pick 
up an object lying there and vault again into the saddle 
without halting, and hit a mark with precision while his 
horse was at full speed. 

In his very boyhood, Schamyl was keenly susceptible 
of the beauty and sublimity of nature. He would climb 



Scbam^rs Earls Xife 245 

the heights at sunset in order to enjoy the view of hill and 
valley, gazing at snows ruddy under the evening rays, and 
watching the huge top of Mount Kasbek to the west, until 
the last light faded from the mountain-side. His adventures 
with the game of the country included the shooting of the 
wild turkey in the pine-tree tops ; the hunting of the wild 
boars that house on the reed-grown river-banks and in 
the thickets of the mountain-glens, and of the fallow-deer ; 
and the coursing of hares with greyhounds of a fine breed. 

The lad's mental training was in the Arabic tongue and 
grammar for the reading of the Koran, and in Mohammedan 
philosophy and literature, his tutor being one of the most 
learned ulemas or murschids (teachers of theology) that the 
country possessed. He became, in due time, a very 
devout and accomplished professor of Islam, trained in the 
most abstruse doctrines of the faith. In early manhood, 
Schamyl was a disciple of Kasi-Mollah, who had revived 
the mystical form of Mohammedanism known as " Sufism," 
which formed a bond of union among the tribes of Daghestan. 

In the western Caucasus, or Circassia proper, the form 
of society was, in a degree, feudal or aristocratic, but in 
Schamyl's country existed a free democracy, with little 
distinction of classes. Prior to his day, there was, among 
the Lesghians (using that term for all the people of the 
eastern Caucasus, consisting of many petty tribes, speaking 
different dialects, with a fanatical attachment to Islamism as 
the one bond of union between them) no other chief than 
he who, by general consent, led the warriors on expeditions 
against a foe. The only superiority, otherwise, was that 
of natural gifts or of wealth. Public affairs were regulated 
at general open-air assemblies of the freemen of the tribe, 
where age, valour, eloquence, alone gave right to respectful 
hearing in debate. The rule was that of custom and ancient 
usage rather than of laws made in public assembly, the Koran 
being, as it were, a court of final appeal. The punishments 



246 Ifoero patriots 

lay mostly in fines, to be paid either by the guilty person, or 
by his family or his tribe. The great social evil was that of 
blood-feuds, as in Corsica, handed down from generation to 
generation, setting family against family and tribe against 
tribe, and creating a mutual alienation often serviceable to the 
Russians in their arduous task of conquest. Of the beauty 
and grace of the women nothing need be said — they are 
proverbial. The men have the air and bearing due to a 
strong sense of personal independence, and to the conscious- 
ness of physical energy and bravery of spirit. Self-possession 
and warlike chivalry mark every look and gesture of these 
gallant mountaineers. Such were the people, needing a ruler 
of exceptional firmness, ability, and valour, among whom the 
lot of our hero was cast. 

It was in 1824 that Schamyl, in his twenty-seventh year, 
joined Kasi-Mollah in his struggle against the Russians. This 
devout Mussulman held a chief command in the bands of 
warriors at the eastern end of the mountain-range. He had 
none of the higher military qualities, although he was a 
dashing leader and one of the bravest of the brave. For years 
he waged a desultory warfare, with alternations of victory and 
defeat, against the Russians, and under him Schamyl won a 
high reputation for skill and courage, and especially for 
success in escaping from positions of extreme danger. On 
one occasion, when he and a party of his comrades were 
brought to bay by the foe, encircled on all sides, and with 
almost the last scrap of food eaten, the body of mountaineers, 
having no thought of surrender, resolved to hew a way, either 
to freedom or to Paradise, through the hedge of Russian 
bayonets. In a sudden sortie on horseback from their 
fastness, they burst like an avalanche on the foe with the 
furious discordant yells of a troop of madmen. For a moment 
or two, they seemed likely to escape as they cleft their way, 
but as the recoiling Russians recovered from the first shock 
and reclosed around them, the mountaineers fell in twos and 



Scbampl's Escapes 247 

threes, fighting to the last, and dying riddled with musket- 
balls and bayonet-stabs. Every man perished save one, the 
fiercest of them all, who broke through the hedge of steel, 
dashed at headlong speed, unharmed, past the more distant 
lines of running fire, reined up suddenly as he reached the 
angle of a mountain-gorge, shook his red scimitar, hurled a 
defiant execration in the faces of his baffled foes, and in a 
moment, with an exulting shout of " Allah ! II Allah ! " 
vanished in the gloomy pass. It was a bad day for Russian 
generals and soldiers when this fortunate escape was made. 
The fleeing horseman was Schamyl, from that hour fully 
believed, among the tribes, to have been saved by the direct 
intervention of the angel Gabriel. 

Kasi-Mollah's hour came at last. On October 18, 1 831, he 
and his followers were surrounded by a great Russian force 
in the fortress of Himri. Every outlet was guarded, and 
there was nothing to be done for escape save the chances 
presented by a desperate sortie. In this attempt nearly every 
man of the beleaguered party was slain. The heroic leader, 
Kasi-Mollah, "died with his hand on his beard, and a last 
prayer murmuring from his lips." One mountaineer in the 
charge slew three Russians, but was run through with a 
bayonet by a fourth. He had strength enough to kill the 
man, and then to make his way through the other soldiers 
around him, escaping death or capture by what seemed to 
be a miracle. Again it was Schamyl who thus survived, and 
his disablement alone prevented his prompt election as chief. 
The terrible wound took long to heal. When his health was 
restored, he showed himself devoid of undue ambition by 
warmly supporting the new imam, or religious leader, Hamzat 
Bey. When this successor of Kasi-Mollah, in 1834, was 
murdered by some Daghestan favourers of Russia, there was 
only one man to be thought of to replace him, and in 
October of that year Schamyl was unanimously chosen by 
the heads of tribes and other prominent men as leader of 



248 1beto patriots 

the Sufite Mohammedans of Daghestan in the contest against 
Russia. 

The new chieftain in war and, as he soon became, civil 
ruler of the eastern Caucasian tribes was as distinguished in 
person as in character and intellectual power. Schamyl was 
of middle stature, with reddish hair. The grey eyes were 
overshadowed by thick, well-drawn brows ; the nose was of 
regular, Grecian type; the mouth was small, the complexion 
very fair and delicate. His hands and feet were elegantly 
small. The great warrior moved with light, elastic tread ; his 
carriage was erect, his bearing altogether noble. Sternly 
composed in moments of the utmost peril, ever holding a 
perfect balance between the ardour of the combatant and 
the calm of the prophet, he impressed with awe those who 
came before him. Regarding himself as an instrument in 
the hands of a higher power, as a man whose Ithoughts and 
decisions were directly inspired from heaven, he was abso- 
lutely impassive, as impersonal as fate, in condemning a traitor 
to death and in conferring honour on fidelity and courage. 
His eloquence was alike fiery and persuasive, and a Daghestani 
poet, Bersek Bey, declared " flames sparkle from his eyes, and 
flowers are scattered from his lips." 

Schamyl was at once a heroic defender of independence, 
a profound politician, and a skilful administrator. His ardent 
religious devotion was no obstacle to his use of the most 
straightforward and practical common sense. When he had 
established his influence over the minds of the Lesghian and 
other tribes by brilliant success against the Russian forces, 
he caused the adoption of a new system of rule which enabled 
him for over twenty years to maintain a struggle against the 
vastly superior power and resources of the enemy. In his 
combined character of priest and warrior, the Caucasian ruler 
made religion the basis of his government. He had around 
him a supreme council for aid in the management of affairs. 
His body-guard was composed of picked men whose sole 



Scbamsl at XTtletlt 249 

duty was to protect their master's person. The territory 
under his control was divided into ndibats or communes, each 
including a number of aouls or villages. His lieutenants 
(naibs) had combined religious, military, and administrative 
functions. It was their duty, on signal given, to take the 
field with a band of warriors who maintained themselves at 
their own charge. Schamyl was thus enabled to gather five 
thousand mounted men, and at the time of his greatest power 
he had ten times that number of troops under his command. 

Volumes would be needed for a detailed account of the 
long struggle between Schamyl and successive Russian com- 
manders, and we therefore relate only some of the most 
striking events. At Tiletli (or Tititle), a strongly fortified 
village in the district of Gumbet, Schamyl and his men were 
attacked in 1836 by General Fesi, who was at the head of 
eight battalions of Russian regulars and about twelve thousand 
militia from Russian Daghestan. These forces were flushed 
with previous victory. The Russian commander, after a 
march from Derbend to Chunsach, had erected a citadel 
there ; he had driven Ali Bey, one of Schamyl's leaders, out 
of the fort of Akhulgo, and had then come to the rescue of 
Lieutenant Butschkieff, who, with a large detachment, was 
hard pressed by Schamyl and his mountaineers near Tiletli. 
The Caucasians were, at that time, destitute of artillery, but 
their leader was resolved to hold his position to the last 
against the vastly superior numbers of the enemy and their 
formidable cannon. An immediate attempt to storm the 
place was repulsed, but further efforts gave the Russians, 
with very severe loss to themselves, possession of about half 
the village. 

The remainder was defended with such courage and skill 
that General Fesi was content to cease fighting and to remain 
intrenched where he was. Schamyl did the same, and with 
a daring which aroused the admiration of his followers, he 
established his head-quarters in the face of the enemy, with 



250 1bero patriots 

a screen of only a few houses intervening. The Russian 
commander, harassed by the failure of provisions, and unable 
to retreat in face of his foes, proposed terms to Schamyl, 
who consented to take an oath of fealty to the czar on 
condition of being left in possession of Tiletli and of all 
the Lesghian highlands. As a Mohammedan, Schamyl held 
the doctrine of keeping no faith with infidels, and he made 
no difficulty in regard to the oath, which was taken in presence 
of a Caucasian ruler, with no Russians nor any of his own 
murids, or leaders of the new school of religious devotees, 
present as witnesses. By both parties, beyond doubt, the 
proceeding was regarded as a farce. Fesi was thus enabled 
to retire in safety from his difficult position, and to send 
in a despatch to his official superior, claiming to have taken 
Tiletli by storm and to have forced Schamyl to take the 
oath of allegiance to the czar. 

The enthusiasm of the tribes had been fully aroused in 
behalf of Schamyl as " the second prophet of Allah," and 
he was soon leader of the greatest military force seen in those 
regions since the days when Nadir-Shah of Persia overran 
Daghestan. The Russians, on their side, taking a year 
or more to recover from the effects of General Fesi's " success," 
attempted nothing in 1838 beyond some small and fruitless 
expeditions into the highlands. During this time, the 
mountain region was filled with the murids of Schamyl, 
summoning all the warriors to rally around the chieftain 
who was commissioned by heaven to deliver the land from 
the threatened bondage to Russia. The villages whose 
people refused adhesion had their flocks and herds driven 
off, their fields and vineyards laid waste, and their dwellings 
utterly destroyed. Hostages were taken from others whose 
fidelity was suspected. No neutrality was permitted. By 
the end of the year 1838 Schamyl had rebuilt all the forts 
destroyed by the Russians in the last campaign, and had 
so far spread his sway that a large part of the Lesghian 



Scbam^l at Bfebulgo 251 

highlands and of Tchetchenia, and all the mountainous 
districts of Daghestan, were subject to his rule. 

The command of the Russian " Army of the Caucasus " 
was now entrusted to General Golovine, and the new leader, 
with forces raised to seventy-five thousand men, was deter- 
mined to deal a decisive blow. He accordingly gave orders 
to General Grabbe for the capture of Akhulgo (or Achulko), 
the head-quarters and stronghold of Schamyl. The word is 
Tartar, signifying " a gathering-place in time of trouble." 
The mountain-fortress, divided into Old and New Akhulgo, 
was a kind of mud-hut encampment placed on the top of 
a compact, isolated, conical mass of rocks, on the right bank 
of a branch of the Koissu river, at a short distance north-west 
of the hero's birthplace, Himri. On one side the rock rises 
perpendicularly to a height of six hundred feet above the 
river. On the other, it is defended by impassable ravines 
with rapid streams. A narrow path winds up the rocky mass, 
which has, on the ascent, three natural terraces favourably 
placed for defence. In the near distance around are other 
less elevated rocks and cliffs, some tufted with beeches and 
oaks, others bare and weather-stained. The experience 
of the struggle had already proved to the Caucasians that 
the high towers of stone, built in the highlands up to the 
time of Kasi-Mollah's fall, were worse than useless against 
artillery, and Schamyl now made his defences consist mainly 
of trenches, earthen parapets, and covered ways. The loose 
stone huts, partly underground, were also turned into regular 
casemates. These various fortifications commanded all the 
approaches to the place, and exposed an enemy to cross-fire 
at all points. On this rock of Akhulgo, strong both by 
nature and art, Schamyl at last planted his standard in a 
contest for life or death. 

In the month of May 1839 General Grabbe advanced 
towards the fortress, at the head of twelve thousand veteran 
troops, with seventeen guns. He was an active and resolute 



252 Ifeero patriots 

officer, and his march appears to have taken Schamyl 
by surprise. Unwilling to retire upon his stronghold, which 
was not provisioned for a siege, and somewhat disconcerted 
by the Russian general's rapid and skilful movements, the 
Caucasian leader opposed a desperate resistance to the 
enemy's advance. One of his divisions was repulsed at 
Buturnay, after two hours' fierce fighting, and on May 30 
and 31 at Arguani, with ten thousand men, Schamyl was 
defeated in a tremendous conflict, losing about fifteen hun- 
dred men and inflicting great loss on the foe. The Russian 
guns were too much for the mountaineers, but the reverse did 
not abate the spirit of the Lesghian warriors, and the force 
withdrew, after further fighting, to Akhulgo. 

On June 12 the fortress was closely invested, and a severe 
bombardment began. Many of the stone works and houses 
were destroyed, but the earthen and subterranean defences 
were uninjured, and from these and the terraces a deadly 
rifle fire was maintained by the mountaineers. On July 15 
the Russians were reinforced by five fresh battalions, including 
the choice corps known as the Paskiewitch (Count of Erivan) 
regiment, composed of fifteen hundred men. During a siege 
of two months, the Russian troops had gradually carried 
forward their works, cutting their way through the soft 
porous rock and providing shelter from rifle fire by gabions 
and stone walls. The religious enthusiasm of the be- 
sieged was displayed from time to time, with fatal effect 
for the assailants, when some Caucasian warrior, doomed 
by his oath to death, and become impatient for the hour, 
grasped a sabre in his right hand, a pistol in his left, and 
with a poniard clenched between his teeth sprang down 
from the rock upon a squad of Russians. Firing his pistol 
at the breast of one, cleaving the head of another with his 
sword, he would rush amongst the rest with sabre in one 
hand and his dagger in the other, dealing death until he 
fell pierced by bayonets. 



•Russians Capture Hfebulao 253 

On the arrival of the reinforcements, General Grabbe 
resolved to end matters by a determined assault. Colonel 
Wrangel, leading the Paskiewitch regiment, made the attempt. 
We cannot do better than take his own account of what 
occurred. " A deep ravine separated the fortress from 
the surrounding mountains. In order to reach the place 
it was necessary to descend a long ledge of rock hardly 
two feet wide. Whoever should chance to slip or to be 
struck by a bullet, must fall over and perish miserably on 
the rocks shutting in the bed of the torrent below. Colonel 
Wrangel moved forward at the head of his fifteen hundred 
picked soldiers, and reached the ledge, which was found 
to be about sixty yards long. Schamyl waited silently until 
the men were well upon it, and then opened a rifle fire so 
destructive that the Russians fell over the precipice by 
scores, the fall of one often dragging others after him. The 
rocks below were, in a few minutes, covered with dead 
bodies. Three times the frightful passage was tried, until 
at length the leader, himself wounded, and having only 
fifty men left out of fifteen hundred, and two officers out 
of thirty-four, perforce abandoned the enterprise." 

Other assaults were made at different points, and at 
last, about the middle of August, the second terrace was 
finally carried, after great loss, by the Russian troops. On 
August 17 the contest was renewed, and after five days 
of conflict the invaders of the Caucasus became masters of 
Akhulgo. The besiegers finally forced their way in along 
with the retiring ranks of a sortie imprudently made by the 
defenders. Not a man was left unslain, or, if not slain, 
unwounded, of the whole garrison, and several hundreds 
of women and children became prisoners. The one man 
whom the Russian general longed to capture had, however, 
vanished. The face of every corpse was carefully examined 
before it was flung down the rocks into the river. Every 
nook and corner was explored, but no Schamyl could be 



254 t>ero patriots 

found. Without him, the victory which had cost the Russian 
army some thousands of fine troops was almost worthless. 

To this day, no certain information on the subject of this 
marvellous escape has come to light. The account most 
generally believed among the mountaineers of the Caucasus 
ascribes it to a clever stratagem. An emaciated Lesghian, 
it is said, crawled down into the Russian lines stating that 
no food was left in the place, and that Schamyl, that very 
night, was to be let down the face of the rock by a rope to 
the river. A watch was kept, and three men who descended 
were seized and taken to General Grabbe's tent. One of 
them admitted that he was Schamyl, and this statement was 
confirmed by the Lesghian deserter. The supposed Schamyl 
was promptly shot, and a despatch with the great news 
was sent off to the general-in-chief. Meanwhile, the great 
Caucasian leader had been let down by the same rope, had 
reached a raft on the river, and was carried safely away on 
the swift current. The czar had medals struck to com- 
memorate the capture of the fortress ; and Schamyl, by his 
escape, stood higher than ever with his followers, as one under 
the special protection of heaven. 

In a few months Schamyl — going from village to village 
preaching faith in Allah and war against the infidel foe ; 
threatening death, by his own mouth and by that of his 
disciples in the more remote districts, to all who held with 
the Russians ; here driving away flocks and herds, and there 
taking hostages — succeeded in rallying round his standard 
once more great numbers of the Tchetchenians, of the 
Lesghians, and of the various tribes of Daghestan. The 
spirit of fanatic warfare swept over all the eastern Caucasus 
like a storm. The Caucasian hero now established his head- 
quarters at Dargo, a village of about seventy houses, some 
fifty miles north-west of Akhulgo. The place was protected 
by mountains and by thick forests of oaks, beeches, and elms, 
with a great undergrowth of flowering plants, vines, and 



Campaigns of 1840*1842 255 

creepers, forming a tangled web as beautiful to the eye and 
as fragrant as it was impenetrable to an advancing force. 

For three or four years, an incessant guerilla warfare was 
waged against the Russian forces on the Kuban, the Terek, 
and the Koissu, in Georgia and in Daghestan, without pre- 
senting any permanent or tangible point for attack. In 1840, 
a number of simultaneous and successful assaults were made 
by the mountaineers on the Russian forts forming the Kuban 
line. The most important of these, Nicolayevski, was taken 
by storm. At another, Michaeloff, the Russian defenders, 
after a heroic resistance, fired the magazine and blew them- 
selves and many of the victors into the air. The Russian 
garrisons were greatly weakened by deaths through contagious 
disease. In the spring of 1841 General Golovine himself, 
with a detachment, joined Grabbe near Tcherkey. While 
the main army was laboriously scaling the mountains under 
a shower of bullets, and Schamyl contested every foot of 
ground, another Russian force, under General Vogelsang, 
arrived on the scene of action, and captured Tcherkey at the 
cost of their leader's life. 

Tchetchenia was again desolated by the enemy, but Schamyl, 
when the Russians had returned to winter quarters, made an 
incursion into a region where the tribesmen were in alliance 
with the Russians, and menaced the fort of Kisliar. The 
colonel in command marched out with a thousand men and 
two guns, but was utterly defeated. The commandants of 
two neighbouring forts then advanced against the victor, but 
Schamyl, skilfully preventing their junction, defeated them in 
detail, and carried off a vast booty, chiefly consisting of 
cattle. 

In 1842, General Grabbe, concentrating a large force, led 
the troops against Dargo, resolved to make an end of the 
dissatisfaction prevailing at Petersburg by finishing with his 
Caucasian adversary at any cost of exertion or of life. On 
May 29 he set out at the head of thirteen battalions, or 



256 ibero patriots 

nearly nine thousand infantry, every soldier carrying provisions 
for eight days. The army had some four-pounder and six- 
pounder guns. As the columns moved on, little opposition 
was made. The mountaineers picked off some of the officers, 
but the advancing force came across little save abandoned 
villages, deserted valleys, and rugged mountain-passes. 

At last, the Russian leader found himself lured by decoy- 
scouts into a dreary cul de sac, the frowning barriers of which 
could neither be overpassed nor turned. The troops had 
been already harassed by "sniping fire," by night-attacks, 
and by volleys from unseen assailants among the forest trees. 
There was nothing for it but to retire, and the jaded Russians 
turned sullenly in their tracks to begin one of the most 
sanguinary and disastrous retreats of the whole war. As 
soon as their enemy wheeled about, the Caucasians, in great 
force close at hand, slung their rifles behind their backs, and 
dashed at the enemy's centre sabre in hand. Again and 
again they forced their way through the ranks. The well- 
disciplined troops, restoring order, fought bravely for their 
lives, as the mountaineers gave no quarter. As the day wore 
on, many of the Russians flung away their knapsacks in 
despair, and lay down as ready victims for the first warriors 
who should come up. 

No respite was allowed, by daylight or dark, for several 
days. As the lovely June dawn broke over the mountain- 
tops, the soldiers looked at its blush in the east with faces 
pallid through watching and haggard with despair. The 
Russian muskets could be used no longer for want of clean- 
ing. The officers, who had donned soldiers' coats in order 
to avoid being a mark for the enemy's rifles, were still recog- 
nised by the keen-eyed mountaineers through their superior 
cast of features and deportment, and were steadily picked off. 
A captive Russian drummer was compelled to lead his com- 
rades into an ambuscade where more than half of the officers 
were killed, and six guns were at one time in the hands of 



Moron30ff in Command 257 

the Caucasians. After a desperate conflict, in which the 
mountaineers displayed marvellous strength of muscle in 
wielding the sabre, and agility of limb in parrying or avoid- 
ing the bayonet thrust, the guns were recovered. 

Schamyl, who had been gathering mounted men in distant 
villages, arrived two days late on the line of march, and the 
Russian force was thus saved from annihilation. As it was, 
they left the bodies of over two thousand men behind to be 
devoured by vultures and wolves, with several guns and a 
large quantity of baggage and war material, before the column 
regained a fortress about fifty miles north of Dargo. The 
Minister of War, Prince TchernichefT, who had arrived in the 
Caucasus on a tour of inspection, was greeted there with the 
sight of battalions wasted by fatigue and famine, with uniforms 
tattered and stained with blood. General Grabbe and the 
commander-in-chief, General Golovine, were soon recalled, 
and General Neidhardt, Golovine's successor, styled by the 
Russians the " German Pedant," effected little. 

In 1844 Schamyl captured a Prussian fort and utterly- 
defeated the officer hastening to its relief. In 1845 Neidhardt 
took the field against the hero, but the campaign was marked 
only by Schamyl's clever escape from a snare laid for him in 
a defile, where he was for a time enclosed. The Russian 
general was then recalled and went to Moscow, where he soon 
afterwards died of grief and shame at his failure. 

Count (afterwards Prince) WoronzorT was then appointed 
to the command, with an army increased to a hundred and 
fifty thousand men. His authority was absolute both in civil 
and military affairs, his responsibility being to the Czar Nicolas 
alone. His orders from the emperor were that Dargo was to 
be captured at any cost. The new Russian leader possessed 
administrative abilities of the highest order, a thorough know- 
ledge of the art of war, and the most heroic qualities of 
character. With these advantages, and with the adoption 
of a new system of warfare, he was destined to prove the 

17 



258 ibero patriots 

most formidable enemy yet encountered by the Caucasians. 
The country was hemmed in, on various lines, by a series 
of fortified posts, and military roads were carried through 
forests and over mountains. Streams and torrents were 
bridged, and permanent occupation of territory succeeded 
to the previous method of periodical raids and the capture 
of isolated Caucasian strongholds. This work, however, 
was one of gradual performance, and Schamyl and his 
mountaineers were yet to oppose a long resistance to the 
efforts of the invaders. 

On June 13, 1845, Woronzoff set out for Dargo with a 
force of ten thousand infantry and some hundreds of Cossacks. 
At Gogatel, on the road thither, he established a depot of 
provisions and munitions of war, the place being only one 
day's march from his destination. When this base of opera- 
tions was ready, the troops on July 17, lightly laden, resumed 
the march, and before the freshness of the morning was gone, 
they had, by the pass of Retschel, entered the beech-woods 
of Itchkeri, the scene of Grabbe's disastrous retreat. There 
the mountaineers showed themselves in force. The resistance 
now presented was of the most determined and ferocious 
character. As the Russian vanguard reached the first narrow 
and precipitous defile, the men were received by a murderous 
fire from behind trunks of trees which, felled across the path, 
were interspersed with fragments of rock, and strengthened 
by double rows of stakes having the interstices filled up with 
earth. In addition to these formidable barricades, thrown 
across every narrow pass, there were obstacles to progress in 
the entanglement of thousands of creepers and vines, and 
in the narrowness and steepness of the tracks, while each 
position of resistance was flanked by Schamyl's sharpshooters. 

The loss of life on the Russian side was terrific. The 
cannon alone enabled any advance to be made. Slowly and 
steadily the invaders, losing men by hundreds, pressed forward 
to their goal, and as the shades of night began to gather under 



Moroit30ff in petti 259 

the leafage of the forest, Dargo came in sight. It was no part 
of Schamyl's plan to defend the place, which had little strategic 
value. Suddenly flames from the village lit up the scene of 
action, and the invaders found themselves at last in possession 
only of the blackened stone walls of a few score of houses on 
a lofty plateau, surrounded by enormous birch-trees. The 
place was commanded by rocks inaccessible from the plateau, 
and Schamyl, who was heading about six thousand warriors, 
promptly opened fire with hundreds of his best marksmen 
and from cannon previously taken from the foe. On the 
following day, the Russians, making a circuit, cleared the 
heights at the point of the bayonet. 

Dargo was taken, but not Schamyl. The Russian troops, 
after their terrible ordeal, needed repose, and General Woron- 
zoff naturally desired to date his bulletin of "victory 7 ' from 
the mountain-stronghold. The place was, however, clearly 
untenable for any length of time, and the Russian commander, 
on the third day after the capture, dispatched three generals, 
with ten battalions, to bring up stores from his depot. On 
their return, Schamyl encountered these troops, and a severe 
conflict ensued in which two of the generals were killed. 
The third could only reach Dargo with the loss of all the 
supplies and several guns, leaving behind thirteen hundred 
slain and wounded men. 

The position of Woronzoff was now almost desperate. It 
was impossible, with forces much diminished and against an 
increasing and victorious enemy, to retreat by the same route 
which had brought him to Dargo. Unconditional surrender 
to the indomitable Caucasian leader seemed to be imminent, 
when two prisoners, heavily bribed, undertook to convey a 
message, by a secret track over the mountains, to General 
Freitag, a very energetic officer in command at the fortress 
of Girsel. An instant move to the rescue was made with 
three thousand infantry and three hundred Cossacks, and, 
fortunately for the Russians, Schamyl heard of the march too 



26o 1beto patriots 

late to arrest it. When the junction of the forces was effected, 
the Russian retreat began, and only the exertions of Freitag 
and of General Von Klakerau, commanding the rear-guard, 
and the desperate energy of the Russian artillerymen under 
Schamyl's furious and incessant attacks prevented a head- 
long and ruinous flight. After emerging from the mountains, 
the Russian troops, fearfully shaken in their morale, fell into 
a panic when the Caucasian squadrons charged, and over two 
hundred officers fell in their efforts to restore order. On 
August i the army reached Girsel, leaving some thousands 
of men behind as the price paid for the useless capture of 
Dargo. The czar, believing that his general had displayed 
great skill and courage in the brief campaign, and having 
announced the taking of the stronghold to Europe as an 
important success for the Russian arms, made the count 
" Prince Woronzoff." Schamyl, after this success, ravaged the 
plains with impunity, both in Georgia and to the north of 
the Caucasus, carrying off many prisoners from under the 
very guns of the forts on the Kuban and the Terek. 

A few months later, the prince had a conference with the 
czar at Sebastopol, and a new policy, as above indicated, 
was adopted. The line of Russian fortresses was to be 
gradually drawn closer and closer around the mountain-chain, 
and light movable columns were to be used in supporting 
them. Patience and time were to be employed in a process 
of gradual exhaustion for the foe. Mobile columns were sent 
forth to traverse the Caucasus in every direction, and the 
success attained was such as to arouse the utmost energies 
of Schamyl. 

While the Russians were preparing for fresh expeditions, in 
1846, the warrior-prophet summoned his standing army and 
all the mounted men from the villages for a bold stroke 
against the two neutral Kabarda provinces, on the northern 
side of the range, about midway between the Black Sea and 
the Caspian, lying north-west of the Lesghian highlands. The 



Campaign of 1846 261 

people of these provinces, after a long contest, had been 
forced to submit to Russia, on the honourable terms of 
retaining their weapons and being ruled by their own chiefs 
under the supremacy of the czar. German colonies settled 
in the fertile valleys, and many of the chiefs favoured the 
Russian ascendency. The young warriors enrolled themselves 
in the ranks of the imperial cavalry, and the country was 
being gradually Russianized. 

The knowledge of this change was gall to the spirit of 
Schamyl. He made many attempts, through his emissaries, 
to incite the Kabardians to efforts for independence, and 
his most eloquent murids, or devotees of the higher rank, 
preached zealously the " holy war." The Kabardians, how- 
ever, were not zealots in religion, and all efforts were vain to 
entice them from a safe if, in SchamyPs view, ignominious 
neutrality. He resolved to employ force, and, with the 
inspiration of genius and almost incredible audacity, he 
invaded the open country where he was liable to be surrounded 
by overwhelming Russian forces. He gathered the largest 
army, either Russian or Caucasian, ever mustered up to that 
time in the highlands, and in May 1846 he took the field 
with twenty thousand men, mostly mounted troops. The 
men of Himri, Akhulgo, and Dargo were there; dwellers on 
the four branches of the Koissu and on the blood-stained 
banks of the Aksai ; Lesghians, Tchetchenians, warriors of 
Daghestan, tribes of diverse origin and speaking various 
tongues, but freemen all, sabres at their sides and bags of 
millet for sustenance at their saddle-bows. 

Two rivers flowed between their land and that of the 
Kabardians, and across their war-path ran two lines of hostile 
fortresses, including some of impregnable strength, containing, 
in all, seventy thousand men ready for service. In the 
intervals were Cossack settlements, and the Kabardians them- 
selves were born warriors. Schamyl had no artillery, and 
no regular convoys of provisions and ammunition. Into this 



262 fhevo patriots 

network of danger and difficulty the Caucasian leader plunged 
without hesitation. The banks of the rivers were level with 
the water from the melting of the mountain-snows, but the 
horses swam across where fords failed. The Cossacks who 
strove to stay SchamyFs headlong course were ridden down. 
The forts were left behind, and before the Russian troops 
could assemble in force to bar every way of retreat, the work 
was done. About sixty populous villages of the Kabardians 
were plundered ; twenty Cossack settlements were destroyed ; 
and the more adventurous riders did not stay their career 
until they had watered their horses on the Kuban. Generals 
Freitag and NestorofT had mustered their battalions and 
occupied the line of the Terek, and the Cossacks had come 
in from the plains with a strength of several thousand lances. 
Schamyl, in his retirement, swerved aside from his line of 
advance, overran more Cossack settlements, and regained the 
mountains with a large number of Kabardians forced into his 
ranks, and with a great booty of millet and mutton carried 
at the saddle-bows of his men. 

The year 1847 was one of varied success. In June Prince 
Woronzoff was repulsed, after three days' righting, in his 
assaults on the Russian fortress of Gerghebil, which Schamyl 
had captured and now defended in person. A Caucasian 
attack on Fort Golovine was beaten off with severe loss. 
A few months later, in 1848, Schamyl crossed the Sundja 
with a great force of horsemen and several guns to attack the 
Russian centre. General Freitag collected a body of infantry 
and cavalry, and, in conjoint operations with other generals, 
strove to enclose his adversary within a narrow pass ; but 
Schamyl, dispersing his men, made off through the woods 
and escaped. He then, with a fresh force, crossed the Sundja 
a second time, and menaced the Russian line on the river 
Terek. He was repulsed by the aid of Congreve rockets, 
which spread death and terror among the mountaineers. 
Several indecisive encounters ensued, the Caucasian hero 



Scbamsl's decline 263 

ever showing great skill and resource both in attack and 
retreat. 

In 1849, at tne capture of the fortress of Akhulgo by the 
Russians, after a siege of nine months, and the repulse of 
three assaults delivered on July 27, August 17, and August 
22-29, Schamyl sustained the loss of his son and of one 
of his wives, captured by the enemy. As usual, he escaped 
himself from the conflict. Weakened but not disheartened, 
he at once set himself to revive the zeal of the mountaineers, 
and to proclaim the continuance of the " holy war " against 
the Russians. In 1850 he was again in a position to renew 
the struggle on the rivers Terek and Kuban. The most 
desperate and sanguinary encounters took place in various 
quarters, Schamyl being personally engaged in Daghestan. 
While his lieutenant, Mohammed-Emin, was recovering to 
the west all the left bank of the Kuban, and Mourad Bey 
to the east was driving the Russians beyond the Terek, 
Schamyl, in this and the following year (1851) was acting 
along the Tchetchna river, and made his way into the plains 
north of the Caucasus. His very successes, however, were 
sapping his power and bringing him to ruin. He was contend- 
ing with an enemy that could repair loss from resources 
without limit, while he was losing his bravest warriors, who 
could not be replaced ; and the confidence of the mountaineers 
in his fortunes slowly declined under the inevitable exhaustion 
produced by the struggle. 

The Crimean War, waged by Russia against Turkey, 
Great Britain, and France, caused a comparative lull, from 
1854 to 1856, in the Caucasian struggle. Schamyl received 
some aid from the Turks and their allies, in the shape of 
money, weapons, and munitions of war, and the Russians 
were compelled to recall from the Caucasus a large part of 
their troops in order to encounter the British and French 
armies before Sebastopol. It was, however, too late for the 
Caucasian patriot to recover his old position, He gathered 



264 Ibero patriots 

his forces, and, by a bold inroad, spread alarm over Russian 
territory as far as Tiflis, in Georgia. In this campaign, 
he captured two Georgian ladies of high rank, whom he 
exchanged for his son, long a prisoner at Petersburg. During 
1855 nothing was done against the Russians at the most 
critical period of their contest with the allies. The reason 
for this abstention of Schamyl from vigorous measures at 
a time when circumstances seemed most favourable for him 
remains unknown. It has been suggested by a friendly critic 
that, foreseeing the inevitable end, he refrained from assailing 
the foe when matters were at the worst for Russia, in the 
hope of gaining more favourable terms. 

In 1856, on the conclusion of peace with the allies, the 
Russians vigorously resumed hostilities in the Caucasus, both 
at the Circassian end of the range and in Daghestan. The 
last of the wild Circassian and Abkhasian tribes were not 
subdued until 1864, but with that part of the struggle Schamyl 
was not personally concerned. The Russians, employing large 
forces, slowly but surely narrowed the circle within which 
their great enemy was confined. All the efforts of Schamyl 
were unable to stay their advance. Steadily a way was made 
by the enemy into the heart of the mountains. After gaining 
possession of the important pass of Argoun, the Russians 
defeated Schamyl, on August ir, 1858, in a sanguinary battle 
near the village of Ismail, and on April 12, 1859, after a long 
siege, they captured the fortress of Weden, a chief stronghold 
of the hero, by storm; again failing, however, to seize the 
chief of the defenders. 

This last success was a fatal blow to the Caucasian cause. 
Wearied of the long, and now hopeless, struggle, the tribes 
submitted in succession, and many of those who had been 
hitherto Schamyl's most sturdy and faithful supporters went 
over to the enemy. The indomitable man then threw himself 
into his last refuge, the seemingly impregnable fortress of 
Mount Ghunib, lying on a precipitous rocky hill in Daghestan, 



Scbam^rs jFall 265 

between the military road to Georgia and the Caspian Sea. 
The Russian troops were at this time under the command of 
Prince Bariatinski, a man of great ability and vigour. After 
a series of desperate combats, in which the chief part of the 
last supporters of Caucasian independence perished, the 
Russians won the last rampart of freedom. Only forty-seven 
of Schamyl's little band of four hundred warriors remained 
alive ; and now, at last, when another escape could be of no 
service to the cause, Schamyl surrendered with the remnant 
of his men. Thus ended his efforts to establish in the 
Caucasus an independent Mohammedan realm which should 
stay the advance of Russia in southern Asia. 

The work of the illustrious champion of freedom in the 
Caucasus did not, however, wholly perish with his fall. Deep 
and ineffaceable traces of his great career remain in the vast 
mountain-range. He planted the germs of organisation and 
civilisation during his exercise of supreme power, in teaching 
the tribes the value of discipline and of submission to authority 
and law ; in suppressing their inter-tribal feuds and hatreds ; 
in instilling a regard for the life and property of others. In 
a word, he reclaimed the men of the mountains from the 
moral condition of brigands, and caused them to look for the 
sanction of justice not in the use of brute force, but in appeal 
to superior authority, which offered to all an impartial pro- 
tection. His severity was great, being necessitated by the 
difficulties of his position, as one controlling rude and savage 
men ; but no act of useless cruelty was ever laid to the charge 
of Schamyl. The Russians themselves, to whom he caused 
so lavish an expenditure of men and money, bore testimony to 
his kindly treatment of prisoners of war. The nearer these 
captives were to the personal supervision of Schamyl, the 
milder was their lot. Whenever he heard of the ill-treatment 
of Russians in other hands than his own, he caused them to 
be removed to quarters where he could afford them his 
personal protection. 



266 1bero patriots 

In the hour of his downfall, Schamyl reaped the reward of 
the splendid courage and determination, the long and heroic 
struggle, the humane treatment of helpless foes, which had 
aroused the admiration and esteem of his now triumphant 
opponents. His treatment as a prisoner was equally honourable 
to the victors and to the vanquished. An annual pension 
of ten thousand roubles, or about a thousand pounds sterling, 
was assigned to him, with a residence in the town of Kaluga, 
south-west of Moscow. There the hero lived in peace, with 
his wives and the households of his two sons. The dignity 
of his admirable character was well displayed when official 
greatness and warlike power had passed away. Faithful to 
his old simple and temperate habits, he displayed also inex- 
haustible charity and the noble resignation of a real believer. 
Terrible in war to his foes, and, in his days of rule, to all 
rebellious subjects, he was benignity itself as an honoured 
prisoner of war. His health remained robust after nineteen 
wounds inflicted by cold steel, leaving the scars which are a 
warrior's noblest decorations. His demeanour was imposing, 
calm, and austere, in his day of adversity as in the height 
of success, being that of a typical Mohammedan of the spiritual 
class. In 1866 Schamyl took the oath of allegiance to the 
czar, and after a brief residence at Mecca, he ended his life 
in 1 87 1 at Medina. His name is inscribed for ever on history's 
roll of honour along with those of his fellow heroes and 
devotees of Islam, Saladin and Abd-el-Kader. 



CHAPTER VII 

DANIELE MANIN (1831— 1849) AND GIUSEPPE 
GARIBALDI (1847— 1860) 

The Freedom of Italy — The Country as settled in 1815 — The Patriot 
Mazzini — Pope Pius IX. — The Movement for Freedom in 1848 — 
Manin's Noble Career — His Birth and Early Life — His Excellent 
Political Methods — His Arrest by Austrian Tyrants — Austrian 
"Justice" exposed — Progress of Revolution in Italy — Manin released 
— The Rising in Venice — Capture of the Arsenal — Manin's Daring — 
Venice all in Arms — Expulsion of Austrian Authorities — A Republic 
proclaimed — Failure of Revolution in Italy — Manin and the Venetians 
alone against Austria — Blockade of Venice — Preparations for Defence 
— Zealous Devotion of the People — Manin chosen "Dictator" — His 
Diplomatic Efforts in behalf of Venice — The Terrible Tidings from 
Novara — General Haynau in Command against Venice — New Pre- 
parations for Resistance — The Patriotic Jews — Complete Blockade 
established — Demeanour of Citizens — The Lines of Defence — The 
Fortress of Malghera — Other Chief Works — Austrian Bombardment 
begins — Radetzky disappointed — Stout Resistance made— Departure 
of Haynau — The Bombardment renewed — Terrible Effect of Fire — 
Malghera and Other Forts abandoned — Austrian Troops blown up 
— Continuance of Siege — Determined Resistance — New Bombard- 
ment — The Bombs from Balloons — Sufferings of Besiegers — The 
City ravaged by Shot and Shell — Calm Endurance of Venetians — 
Assailed at last by Famine and Cholera — Capitulation of Venice — 
Manin's Escape to France — Domestic Calamities — His Hard Lot as 
an Exile — Death deeply mourned in Venice — Meanness of Austrian 
Tyrants — Transfer of his Remains from Paris — Monument erected. 
Garibaldi, his Place in History — His Noble Character — Origin 
of Family — Birth, Parents, Early Life — Personal Appearance — His 
Interview with Mazzini — Garibaldi a Conspirator — Flees for His 
Life — Sails for South America — Brilliant Action for Freedom in 
Brazil and Argentine State — Garibaldi's Great Purpose for Italy — 
267 



268 1bero patriots 

Sails for Europe (1848) with Men of Italian Legion — The Revolu- 
tionary Movement in Italy — Failure of the Cause — Garibaldi's 
Adventures — The " Roman Republic " — Garibaldi a Defender of 
Rome — His Defeat of French Forces — Fights against Neapolitan 
Troops at Velletri — His Narrow Escape — Returns to Rome — City 
forced to surrender — Garibaldi's Flight — Death of his Wife — Again 
an Exile — Life in New York — Again at Sea — Returns to Nice — 
Fights against Austria in 1859 — The Year of Glory (i860) for 
Garibaldi — The Landing of " The Thousand " at Marsala — The 
March on Palermo — His Victory at Calatafimi — Garibaldi's Tactics 
at Monreale — Brilliant Success — He forces Entrance into Palermo — 
The Final Conquest of Sicily — He crosses to Italy — His Triumphal 
March — Enters Naples a Conqueror — Victories at the Volturno and 
Caserta Vecchia — His Qualities as a Commander — Michelet's Eulogy 
of Garibaldi — His Honours to Mazzini on Death — The Hero's Noble 
Poverty — Use made of National Gift — His Declining Health — Visits 
to Milan and Messina — His Death — Honours paid to Memory — The 
Dirge of Neapolitan Women. 

THE creation of a free, united, and independent Italy, 
and her entry into the European political system as a 
sixth great power, constitute one of the most striking and 
important facts of modern history. The subject, treated as a 
whole, is a very wide one, and in these concluding pages of 
our records of hero-patriots we can deal only with a few of 
the chief episodes, and with two only of the men distinguished 
in the long and chequered contest ending in June, 1871, 
when Rome became at last the capital of the new, complete 
Italian realm. 

The settlement made at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, 
rearranging European boundaries of states on the fall of 
Napoleon, left Italy still divided and enslaved. The only 
Italian Republic was the little still-existing San Marino, lying 
among the eastern spurs of the Apennines, a few miles south- 
west of Rimini on the Adriatic. The only native Italian ruler, 
besides the Pope, was the King of Sardinia, ruling in Piedmont, 
Savoy, and Genoa ; and he was an indolent despot. Austria 
held Lombardy and Venetia. Tuscany, Lucca, Parma, and 
Modena were duchies whose petty sovereigns depended on 



3tals In 1847 269 

Austria. The King of " the two Sicilies," a Bourbon prince, 
held Naples and Sicily. Three centuries of foreign tyranny 
had lowered the character of the people, but a desire for union 
and independence existed in countless hearts, and the authorities 
at Naples, Rome, Milan, Venice, and other centres of tyranny 
were in continual conflict with secret political societies which 
were formed. The Austrian government helped the weaker 
sovereigns to keep the people enslaved, and encouraged them 
to refuse all demands for constitutional government. Many 
attempts for freedom, hopeless from the first because they 
were devoid of unity of design and action, were made in 182 1 
and 1 83 1, the last of which left the peninsula more than 
ever subject to Austrian power and influence. 

One of the chief political founders of Italian freedom then 
arose in a native of Genoa, Giuseppe Mazzini, a man of high 
education and attainments, who formed a society of patriots 
called Young Italy, the members of which aimed at unity 
for the country under republican rule. They hoped to 
drive out the Austrians with a volunteer army composed 
of patriots from all parts of Italy ; but new attempts in that 
direction utterly failed, and Mazzini, expelled in turn from 
France and Switzerland, took refuge in London, and carried 
on his work from 1833 to 1848 in the European press, and 
by secret correspondence with his native country. 

New hope for Italian freedom dawned in 1846, when 
Cardinal Mastai Ferretti became Pope as Pius IX. The 
new ruler of the Papal States (central Italy) began a series 
of reforms, and in July 1847 he aroused the wrath of the 
Austrian government by giving his consent to the formation 
of a " National Guard," to replace the old tyrannical police, 
not only in Rome but throughout his dominions. Austria 
then invaded the Papal territories and seized the city of 
Ferrara, and a new King of Sardinia, Charles Albert, turning 
for support from Austria to his own people, declared that, if 
the Austrians went further, he would fight to the death for 



270 1bero patriots 

Italy and the Pope. In Tuscany, the people compelled their 
" Grand Duke " to grant them a National Guard, and some 
disturbances took place in Lucca, Modena, and -Parma. In 
the first days of 1848, an insurrection at Palermo forced the 
King of Naples and Sicily to grant constitutional government, 
and his example was quickly followed by the King of Sardinia, 
the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and the Pope. 

A crisis came with the French Revolution of February 1848, 
when Louis Philippe was driven an exile to England,- and the 
second French Republic was established. The people of 
Lombardy, Venetia, Parma, and Modena took up arms, and 
drove the Austrian troops in retreat to Verona. It was the 
movement in Venetia which* brought to the front Daniele 
Manin. 

This illustrious man, styled by French writers " the great 
exile of Venice," and by an able British critic " the noblest 
and wisest of Italian patriots," was the hero whose name is 
most closely associated with the history of Venice in 1848 and 
1849, an( ^ especially with the siege of the renowned city by 
the Austrians, against whom a resistance rarely equalled in 
history was made by the citizens. Manin was he who guided 
and controlled the revolution, at once the leader and the 
chief martyr in the cause of his country's freedom. It was 
not, indeed, his fortune to die for Venice either on the 
scaffold or in the field, but to perish in the slower and 
more cruel process of eight years' exile and want, witnessing 
the sorrows and sufferings of those who were dearest to him, 
and finding repose at last in a foreign grave far from the 
country which he had loved so well. An advocate, a 
prisoner for his liberal opinions, set free by his countrymen 
at the outset of the struggle which is the solitary instance 
wherein Venice ever rose in arms against oppressors, an 
indigent exile — there, in brief, is the career on earth of 
Daniele Manin. 

It is a remarkable historical coincidence that the name of 



« J<, 




[Face page 270. 



DANIELE MANIN. 



£arl£ Xife of Obmin 271 

the last doge of Venice, whose weakness hastened her downfall 
under the evil action of Bonaparte, was the same as that of the 
brave, strong man who was born ten years after the tomb had 
closed, for the period of seventy years, over the political 
freedom of the Queen of the Adriatic. Manin, the Venetian 
hero-patriot, was born at Venice, on May 13, 1807, of a Jewish 
family which had embraced Christianity. His father was a 
distinguished lawyer, a philosopher, and democrat, who bitterly 
hated Napoleon because he had not emancipated Italy and 
restored Poland. The younger Manin thus grew up as an 
Italian patriot, who awaited the hour of freedom for his native 
country. His precocious ability enabled him, when he 
studied at the university of Padua, to become a Doctor of Law 
at the age of seventeen years, a success without precedent. 
His mind was active and practical, his sensibility strong, his 
love of order and of a simple, well-regulated life was con- 
spicuous. His soul was ardent, his nature charmingly 
vivacious, with a remarkable vein of melancholy. At twenty- 
one years of age Daniele Manin married a noble-hearted 
woman without fortune, and betook himself to a legal career 
for a livelihood. In 1830 he was established at Maestra, at 
the entrance to the lagoons, as ;a consulting lawyer in civil 
cases, being restrained by Austrian law from pleading at the 
bar of any court. Learned in jurisprudence and in languages, 
he had already translated the great French work of Pothier 
on Roman law. 

In regard to the cause of freedom for Italy, Manin would 
have nothing to do with secret societies. His instinct and his 
reason alike made him hostile to all such methods. His judg- 
ment was perfectly sound ; his views were of the clearest ; his 
coolness was imperturbable; his mind was closed against all 
illusions. With enemies, strangers, and friends he was a man 
of rectitude and frankness, combining with those qualities 
extraordinary diplomatic ability. His avowed principles in 
seeking redress for the evils under which his country suffered 



272 Ifeero patriots 

were ever the same — "legality" and "publicity" — and he 
constantly dissuaded his friends in the provinces from every 
kind of violence and secret plotting. Having issued a 
memorial to the Austrian government, couched in moderate 
terms, for certain reforms in the method of rule, Manin, being 
therefore regarded as " a dangerous man " by the governor of 
Venice, was arrested, along with his worthy ally, Tommaseo, 
on January 18, 1848. At this time his physical strength 
was exhausted by the labours of many years in political affairs 
for the deliverance of Italy, and in his professional occupations 
for the support of his wife, son, and daughter ; by the suffering 
due to a wasting renal disease, and by the pain of mind which 
he endured in viewing and in aiding to nurse the incurable 
malady of his beloved daughter. 

The system of Austrian government in Venetia at this time 
is clearly revealed in a note sent by the Director-General of 
Police to the president of the criminal court which was to try 
the two prisoners. " In the event of an acquittal," were the 
words of this atrocious document, " inform me immediately, 
and do not set the prisoners at liberty." In other words, 
justice for Italians, under Austrian rule, was non-existent, and 
the police were the beginning and the end of everything which 
concerned the liberty, property, and lives of citizens. Manin's 
able defence, which was, in substance, an appeal to the 
Austrian emperor as the source of all authority and law, and 
sought there the justice which would concede freedom and 
nationality to the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, was of no 
avail. An application made by his wife to the chief of the 
police and to the criminal court for his release on bail, accord- 
ing to law, was disregarded. The people of Venice showed 
their feelings of indignation by a march in mourning, with 
uncovered heads, before the windows of the prison. 

Revolution was soon to bring for Manin and his fellow- 
prisoner the boon of freedom which Austrian "justice "denied. 
The movement for liberty was rapidly spreading in Italy. On 



fl&antn IReleasefc 273 

February 6, 1848, news arrived of the successful rising in 
Sicily, and of the people of Naples having compelled King 
Ferdinand to grant a " constitution." The whole of Venetian 
society went, in splendid attire, to the Fenice theatre, where 
the boxes, stage, and performers were decorated with the 
Italian tricolour, and the house rang with enthusiastic cries of 
" Down with Austria." Good tidings for the friends of 
freedom came pouring in. Before the end of February, the 
King of Sardinia and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, as we have 
seen, had granted their subjects liberal " constitutions," and 
monarchy had fallen in France. The Austrian authorities in 
Venice were greatly alarmed. On March 5 the tribunal 
presided over by an upright Italian judge declared that there 
was no legal charge against Manin and Tommaseo, but, in 
accordance with the note above quoted, the prisoners were 
consigned to the hands of the police. The Governor of 
Venice, Count PalrTy, wrote to Vienna requesting the removal 
of the two captives to the Austrian fortress of Spielberg. 

In the midst of his personal danger, the heart of the patriot 
was tortured by the anxieties of the father. Manin's family 
were refused access to his cell, and the malady of his daughter 
had become much worse. On March 15 news of the revo- 
lution at Vienna reached Venice, and the prisoners knew that 
the hour of deliverance was at hand. On the 17th the people 
rushed to the governor's palace and demanded their release. 
He referred the delegates to the judicial authorities, but the 
more excitable part of the crowd, headed by lads including 
Manin's young son, forced the prison gates and brought out 
the captives. Manin had positively refused to quit his cell 
until the gaoler informed him that he was released by order 
of the court. The governor, in a panic, had influenced the 
tribunal, and Manin thus attained his chief object — that of 
compelling the foreign authority to confess that it violated 
its own laws and acted only in an arbitrary manner. 

The chief patriot of Venice was then raised in a chair and 

18 



274 1bero patriots 

carried to the Piazza di San Marco (Square of St. Mark). 
During a halt made in front of the governor's palace, Manin 
made a brief speech in which he pointed out to the people 
that "true and lasting liberty cannot exist without order," and 
that they must become " zealous guardians of freedom in order 
to prove themselves worthy of it." The governor clapped his 
hands approvingly from the open window. Manin continued, 
"Still there are times and circumstances when insurrection 
becomes not only a right but a duty." The governor violently 
shut his window. The triumphal procession was then resumed, 
and near Manin's residence, in a corner of the islet of San 
Luca, the rescued man was deposited in the arms of his wife 
and of his daughter, the beloved child who seemed to derive 
new strength from his return. 

For seventeen months from that day Venice was free from 
Austrian tyranny, and Daniele Manin was the leading spirit in 
the beautiful city. There was some bloodshed on March 17, 
the day of the prisoners' release, when a battalion of Croat 
troops in the Austrian service advanced to tear down the 
tricolour floating from the masts in the Square of St. 
Mark. On the following day, the whole city rose as one man. 
The bridges were barricaded, and every roof was covered with 
people armed with tiles. The fight between the populace and 
the Croat infantry was violently renewed in the great square, 
but the matter ended in the governor's yielding to a demand 
for the establishment of a civic guard of two hundred men, in 
the restoration of order, and the illumination of the city. 

Manin, resolved on completing the good work, now aimed 
at nothing short of national independence and the expulsion 
of the foreigner. In the civic guard he already possessed an 
organised force. The garrison of Venice was small. The two 
Italian regiments were ready to fraternise with the people, and 
only the Croat battalion was true to Austria. Within four days 
the civic guard, armed and fairly disciplined, had become four 
thousand strong, and the time for fresh action had arrived. 



flfeanin's Ifoerofsm 275 

Manin had received a warning from a young naval officer, 
Salvani, and from workmen in the arsenal, that preparations 
were being made for bombarding the city, and on March 21, 
when this warning was renewed, the patriot replied, " To- 
morrow Venice will be in my power, or I shall be dead." 

The audacity and heroism now displayed by Manin were of 
the highest order. Resolved to attack the arsenal, he was only 
a captain in the civic guard, and the commandant, Mengaldo, 
refused to risk the lives of his men in an enterprise which he 
deemed hopeless. The patriot then demanded the services 
of his own company ; but the adjutant-major refused assent, 
and of the whole company Manin's young son alone stood 
by him. An appeal to all the commanders of battalions in 
the guard brought a favourable reply from one, and hope 
revived in Manin's breast. He sent word for the men to 
assemble at noon on March 22 in the great square. Mean- 
while, news arrived that Colonel Marinovich, second in com- 
mand at the arsenal, and the supposed agent of the plan for 
bombarding the city, had been killed by some of the workmen 
in the place, and Manin set out from his home, sword in hand, 
with his son, gun on shoulder, to attack the great storehouse 
of munitions of war. Joined on the way by a few civic guards, 
he found none of the expected battalion at the Square of St. 
Mark. Still his only cry was " Forward ! " The little troop 
soon numbered about a hundred men, mostly armed only 
with swords. 

Arrived at the arsenal, the leader boldly demanded its 
surrender from Martini, commander of the marines, and was 
met with a stout refusal. During the parley one of the naval 
officers had given up the cannon to the civic guards, and 
Manin at once turned the guns on some gunboats in the 
lagoon, on which Croat troops were stationed with lighted 
matches. The keys of the armoury were surrendered, and 
the civic guards and workmen were quickly supplied with 
firearms and ammunition. A column of Italian infantry in 



276 1bero jpatrfots 

the Austrian service, drawn up for attack in front of the 
arsenal gate, grounded arms on receiving the order to fire on 
the revolutionists, and Manin passed out in triumph, crying, 
" Viva la Republica ! Viva V Italia ! Viva San Marco" 
this last being the old rallying-cry of the Venice populace. 
The words were answered by long and unanimous accla- 
mations, and Manin, with his son and two friends, sought 
a brief repose after bidding his followers spread themselves 
all over the city and summon the people to the great 
square. 

At four o'clock the hero appeared, proclaimed as their 
"saviour" by the people, and mounted a table from which, 
sword in one hand and the Italian tricolour in the other, 
he briefly addressed the crowd, congratulating them on the 
winning of freedom, and urging them to set up a republic. 
Thunders of applause passed from isle to isle. The civic 
guard swore to defend the new state and its founder, and the 
liberator, overcome with joy and fatigue, was conducted in 
procession to his home. The governor had already resigned 
his powers into the hands of the commandant, Count Zichy, 
an enlightened and humane Hungarian. In the interests of 
liberty, of humanity, and of civilisation, this defender of a city 
filled with treasures of art declined to enter on a hopeless 
contest of less than two thousand five hundred men against a 
great armed population, and signed a capitulation which after- 
wards cost him a life-long imprisonment by sentence of the 
Austrian government. 

Of the new republic of Venice Manin now became 
president, heading a ministry which included a Jew and 
an artisan as pledges of liberty and political equality. Both 
these men proved themselves, during their brief period of 
ofiice, worthy of representing these great principles. The 
only deed of blood which had stained the revolution of 
Venice was the murder, probably on private grounds, of 
Colonel Marinovich at the arsenal; and Manin was fully 



Jtals in 1848 277 

resolved on the firm maintenance of order which should 
preclude any repetition of such a crime. 

We must now briefly trace the course of events in other 
parts of Italy in order to realise the state of isolation in 
which Manin and his fellow-patriots at Venice were soon 
to find themselves. The King of Sardinia, Carlo Alberto, 
declared war against Austria, crossed the Ticino, and defeated 
the enemy's troops. He was joined by crowds of volunteers 
from all parts of Italy. The army of the Pope crossed the 
Po, and the King of Naples was forced to allow his army 
to advance northwards on behalf of the national cause. The 
Sardinian sovereign, however, devoid of any fixed plan and 
of military skill, was utterly defeated by the Austrian veteran, 
Marshal Radetzky, a man of eighty-two years, on July 25, 
1848, at Custozza, south-west of Verona, and nearly all the 
north of Italy was soon again in Austrian hands. The revolts 
at Parma and Modena were suppressed. The Pope, at the 
end of April, had withdrawn from the contest against Austria, 
and in May the brutal King Ferdinand of Naples slew 
his people in the streets of the city, and revoked the 
"constitution" which he had granted. 

The failure of the revolution in other parts of Italy thus 
brought Manin and his Venetians face to face with the 
Austrian government, angered by their humiliation on the 
Adriatic lagoons. The chief resources of the city and territory 
at first consisted of seven thousand civic guards at Venice, 
and some similar corps in the towns on the mainland; six 
thousand sailors and marines ; well armed forts and a full 
arsenal ; a few small armed craft, and ten millions of lire 
(about ^380,000) in the public treasury. A committee of 
defence on military questions was formed, and ten battalions 
of gardes mobiles, numbering six thousand men, were raised, 
with an artillery legion and a corps of gens-d'armes. 

On May 4, 1848, the Austrian government proclaimed 
the maritime blockade of Venice. Patriotic troops had 



278 Dero patriots 

arrived from Naples and Rome, forming, with a Venetian 
force, an army of about twenty thousand men for operations 
on the mainland. Three-fourths of this body were, however, 
quite without experience in the use of weapons, and the two 
leaders, Durando and Ferrari, had respectively the opposite 
faults of undue circumspection and excessive zeal. Early 
in May they were driven back on Vicenza and other points, 
and on May 21, at six in the morning, Manin and 
Tommaseo, with a reinforcement of a thousand men, set out 
by railway from Vicenza, which was attacked by the advance- 
guard of the Austrian forces. The lawyer and literary man 
who governed Venice showed an absolute indifference to 
danger and death amidst Austrian bullets, and his reinforce- 
ment, aided by the arrival of Durando with four thousand 
regular troops, compelled the Austrians to withdraw. It was, 
however, impossible long to maintain the contest on the 
mainland against the overwhelming forces of Austria, directed 
by the able Radetzky. 

The devotion of the Venetians to the cause of freedom 
has been rarely equalled. When the increase of armaments 
required the raising of ten millions of lire by a forced loan, 
the military chest was enriched, at a single service for the 
" crusade " held by some poor monks, by a sum equal to 
a thousand pounds in money, and an amount of far greater 
value in plate, jewels, provisions, clothing, and arms. The 
women bestowed their earrings, neck-chains, and even the 
large silver bodkins from their long raven hair. The poor 
brought their beds for the use of the soldiers j even con- 
demned prisoners gave their mite for the good cause. As 
for Manin, he gave his only article of value — a silver snuff- 
box. A young girl whose betrothed lover had been killed 
by the Austrians brought the wedding-ring, now become 
precious as a relic but useless for its original purpose. 

With the fall of Vicenza, which was taken by Marshal 
Radetzky in June 1848, after a heroic struggle of eighteen 



Aantn Dictator 279 

hours on the part of the defenders, and at a fearful cost to 
the victors, the power of the new Venetian republic on the 
mainland came to an end. The city was resolved to hold 
out to the last, both against open force and against the 
insidious diplomacy of European powers hostile to republican 
freedom. 

After a temporary retirement from office, partly on the 
ground of extreme fatigue, Manin, on August it, 1848, 
by public acclamation, became Dictator of Venice, with a 
naval and a military colleague. The city was thus governed 
by a triumvirate, composed of Manin as President, of Admiral 
Graziani, and of Colonel Cavedalis, the two latter being men 
of advanced age but great activity, both of honourable 
character and devoted to duty. The most energetic measures 
were adopted for defence. On August 31 the national 
loan of ten millions of lire was opened, and the military 
force numbered twenty thousand men, including the military 
organisation of the people of Venice and of the towns of 
the lagoons, the whole population being about one hundred 
and eighty thousand, and volunteers from many parts of 
Italy. The city was now strictly blockaded by Austrian 
troops on land and by a naval force from Trieste. 

We pass over some months, uneventful in the beleaguered 
city herself, a time during which Manin was carrying on 
active negotiations with French and British statesmen in the 
vain hope of obtaining the active interference of the Western 
Powers of Europe on behalf of men struggling to remain 
free from Austrian domination. On January 18, 1849, 
the anniversary of the captivity of Manin and Tommaseo, 
there were fervent demonstrations of popular feeling for the 
dictator. When the elections were held, Manin was chosen 
by eight districts out of eleven ; more than two-thirds of the 
electors — a very large proportion under a system of universal 
suffrage — taking part in the voting. In February, at the 
meeting of the new Assembly, a unanimous vote conferred 



28o 1bero patriots 

on the triumvirs full power in all matters relating to the 
defence of the city, and before the end of the month Manin 
and his colleagues presented reports showing that the republic 
possessed a corvette of twenty-four guns, two brigs, and a 
schooner ready for service, with another schooner, a brig, 
and a frigate rapidly advancing in construction. There were 
4,845 sailors and marines, 16,430 troops of the line, and 
550 guns mounted in battery on the forts and islands. 

When, on March 28, 1849, the terrible news of the King 
of Sardinia's utter and final defeat at Novara reached Venice, 
the first effect on the minds of the citizens was one of stupe- 
faction. Then a rush was made to the Square of St. Mark, 
where the crowd cried loudly for " their father Manin ! " 
A foreign witness at this time says : " The faith of Venice 
in this man was inconceivable, complete, absolute. . . . He 
had never deceived, never abused the confidence of his 
fellow-citizens. . . . The people seemed to attribute to him 
omnipotence and omniscience, and believed him capable of 
guarding the state from every peril, and of rescuing her 
from every calamity." The dictator now addressed the 
multitude from a window of the palace in a few words, 
referring them to the bulletins yet to be published by the 
government ; but the grave and sad look of his face showed 
his belief that great misfortunes had occurred. After three 
days of gloom, the evil tidings of Novara was confirmed. 

General Haynau, commanding the Austrian corps of observa- 
tion on the mainland before Venice, had already, on March 27, 
summoned " the persons who governed Venice," in threaten- 
ing terms, " to restore the city into the hands of its legitimate 
sovereign." On April 2 the Assembly met, and unanimously 
resolved to " resist the Austrian army at any cost " ; and for 
this purpose they invested President Manin with unlimited 
powers. The whole people ratified this decree by accla- 
mation, and a red ribbon was universally worn in the button- 
hole as a sign of desperate resistance. On the top of the 



Sicqc of IDenice 281 

Campanile of St. Mark, beside the golden angel that seems to 
watch over the city, was planted a huge red banner, standing 
out like a spot of blood against the azure sky, as it was 
seen afar off in the Adriatic by the enemy's fleet, and by 
their army on the distant mainland. It was the signal of 
defiance to the last extremity. 

On April 3 General Pepe returned from the mainland 
with his troops to Venice, and the most energetic measures 
were concerted between the dictator and the commander- 
in-chief to strengthen discipline, to establish an efficient 
hospital service, and to protect the soldiers as far as possible 
against the miasma of the lagoons. A new forced loan 
of three millions of lire (about ^110,000) was levied, divided 
among fifty of those best able to contribute, mostly Jews. 
The rich were the first to urge resistance; many of them 
munificently exceeded their allotted amount of contribution, 
and the second instalment of the loan was half paid in 
before the first was due. The zeal of the Venetian Shylocks 
was remarkable. They showed themselves grateful both for 
the present and the past. Proud to see a man of their own 
blood raised by his virtues and his abilities to be the head 
of a new Venice, proclaiming equality of rights for them, 
they also remembered that during the persecutions of the 
Middle Ages Venice had offered their race its only asylum 
in Europe. 

On April 19 the Austrian vessels were before the island 
of Malamocco, and an effective blockade of the city was 
established. Henceforth, the only medium of communication 
between Venice and the outer world lay in a few British 
and French warships, and in some peasants and sailors from 
the neighbouring shores, smugglers who penetrated the circle 
of the blockade at the risk of being caught and shot by 
the Austrian besiegers, as frequently happened. Amidst idle 
successive rumours of aid to come from Hungary, now in 
revolt against Austria; from the United States, and from 



282 Ifoevo patriots 

France, the Venetian citizens showed two essential traits 
of their character, in their indestructible faculty of hoping 
and in the passion for pomp and ceremonies in daily life; 
a liking which has its source in a taste for the beautiful, not 
in mere frivolity. The young men in velvet tunics, plumed 
caps, and gay scarves who paraded in the Piazza di San 
Marco were those who formed the invincible company defend- 
ing the fortress of Malghera. The religious solemnities were 
never suspended on their usual days during the whole siege, 
and even the horrors of war became the occasion of other 
solemn displays, and of new spectacles of reviews, consecra- 
tions of banners, extraordinary processions, and elaborate 
obsequies of the dead who had fallen for their country. In 
the chief ceremonies the dictator took his part ; a striking 
contrast, as a little man in simple dark costume at the 
head of the Assembly, walking beside the tall old general 
in brilliant uniform. Such was his appearance at the festival 
of Saint Mark, on April 25, at the conclusion of which Manin, 
from the balcony of the palace, flung to the people the cry 
of indomitable hope, so much in harmony with the heart 
of Venice, in the words, " Citizens, he who persists will 
conquer ! " 

Without bombast, without feverish excitement, without 
lamentations, Venice and her people did persist. Even in 
her extreme peril, sadness never fell upon the city, the little 
world of the lagoon which sufficed unto itself, wherein nothing 
betrayed the idea of a beleaguered town on the verge of 
famine or assault. Every evening music resounded from 
open windows along the canals, glided with the gondolas over 
the tranquil water, and animated the cafes of the great 
piazza. 

The development of the Venetian fortifications, due to the 
energy of the defenders, embraced, in all their sinuosities, not 
less than ninety miles, defended by seventy forts and batteries, 
mounting five hundred and fifty pieces of cannon. A triple 



^fortress of flfcalafoera 283 

line of defence protected the last asylum of Italian freedom. 
In the centre was Venice, with the batteries of the lagoons and 
the numerous gunboats on the canal; beyond, towards the 
open sea, was the line of shore and the isles of the east, 
with the armed works of Chioggia, Pelestrina, Malamocco, and 
Lido. To the west, on the coast of the mainland, the forts 
and batteries of the interior shore of the lagoon enclosed 
the circle from Tre-Porti to Brondolo, with Malghera in 
the middle. 

The first efforts of the enemy were directed against 
Malghera. This great fortress, constructed by the French 
between 1808 and 1810, amid the marshes of Orsellino, 
three and a half miles from the city, commanded on one 
side the road from Mestre and Padua ; on the other, the 
great bridge of the Venice railway. On one side it was 
flanked by an old work recently called by Manin's name ; 
on the other by the Rizzardi redoubt, constructed since the 
revolution. At the entrance to the great bridge a battery 
called The Five Arches supported Malghera on the third 
side. Fort Malghera, apart from the detached works, had 
a garrison of two thousand five hundred men and one 
hundred and thirty guns. General Haynau, the Austrian 
commander, had thirty thousand troops and an immense 
force of artillery. 

On the night of April 29-30 trenches were opened, and the 
Austrians pushed on their approaches with great vigour, 
compelling the hapless peasants of Dogado, at the bayonet's 
point, to toil for the benefit of their tyrants under the fire 
of their fellow-patriots. Malghera was in charge of General 
Ulloa, a man who could command almost without words, and 
was obeyed without question or murmur. 

On May 3 Marshal Radetzky reached head-quarters, near 
Mestre, with three of the Austrian archdukes, to whom he 
had promised the spectacle of the fall of Venice. On 
May 4, shortly after noon, seven batteries, suddenly unmasked, 



284 1bero patriots 

sent against one face of the fortress the fire of sixty cannon 
and mortars. This discharge was met by a still more 
terrible cannonade, causing the besiegers far greater losses 
than those of the Venetians. The population hurried in 
crowds to the points of the city nearest to the scene of action, 
watching the spectacle with telescopes from the platforms of 
the batteries, from the towers and the roofs, from the Rialto 
and from gondolas on the waterways. 

On the morning of May 5 a flag of truce brought to 
the commandant of Malghera a proclamation addressed 
by Radetzky to the Venetians through " the President of the 
present government," demanding absolute submission within 
twenty-four hours The reply of " resistance at any cost " was 
promptly returned. Radetzky and his archdukes then went 
off in haste and anger, and General Haynau, recalled to 
command in Hungary, where he won lasting infamy by his 
cruelty, was replaced by Count Thurn. The Austrians with 
great difficulty resumed their works under severe losses from 
the cannon of the besieged, from the heavy spring-rains which 
almost drowned the men in the trenches, and also from the 
musket-balls and bayonets of the garrison of Malghera in their 
many impetuous sorties. 

The blockade of Venice was beginning to produce its 
effects. The extensive provisioning which, with admirable 
foresight, had been effected in the early days of the revolution, 
and steadily carried on up to the time of an effective blockade, 
still assured the moderate price of bread; but except that 
article, and the fish of the lagoons, all kinds of provisions 
became scarce and dear. On May 17, the Venetian squadron 
sailed out of the port, and the Austrian vessels went into 
the offing in order to entice their foes out to fight. The 
Venetian flotilla did not follow them, but withdrew after 
attaining its object of enabling a good number of small craft, 
laden with provisions, to enter the harbour. Some days 
later, sorties from Tre-Porti and Brondolo, on and close to the 



Hustrian Bombardment 285 

mainland, brought in a large number of cattle and a great 
supply of other provision. 

A fresh trial of endurance for the beleaguered citizens came 
when the besiegers, on May 24, reopened the bombardment 
of Malghera, at daybreak, with a hundred and fifty guns at a 
distance of about five hundred and fifty yards, as contrasted 
with their former fire of sixty guns at double the range. The 
peril for the defenders was vastly increased, but the courage 
of the garrison rose with the need. In a battery served by a 
company of the flower of Venetian youth above referred to, 
three marksmen were killed at the same gun within an hour. 
The fourth, a young man fresh from the counting-house, 
stepped forward, heedless of the order of the commandant. 
The new gunner remained at his post until the next day. The 
artillerymen of the Rizzardi redoubt stayed three days in their 
batteries, fed only on biscuits and water. A crowd of infantry 
volunteers disputed who should take the place of the gunners 
that fell. One Venetian, his legs carried off by a cannon-ball, 
clapped his hands as he fell, crying, " Viva Venise ! " A 
patrician, visiting his son in a battery, was struck down by a 
shell. The son threw himself on the body, and the bursting 
shell tore their interlaced frames to pieces. 

The hostile fire continued with frightful violence for three 
days and two nights, until over sixty thousand projectiles had 
been hurled into the fortress. The ramparts and embrasures 
were utterly crushed, the parapets so ruined that the gunners 
were exposed. The supply of gabions was exhausted, so that 
no repairs could be made; the casemated barracks were no 
longer proof against the bombs, which killed the soldiers in 
their rooms. Many of the guns were dismounted, and more 
than half the batteries were silenced. Of the garrison (two 
thousand five hundred and fifty men) a fifth were either killed 
or disabled. Ammunition was failing the gallant defenders, 
and a fresh supply could arrive from the city only through an 
incessant shower of fire on the route. 



286 1bero ipatrtots 

Manin, seeing the place to be untenable against further 
bombardment, and not to be maintained against assault made 
by vastly superior numbers, sent an order for evacuation to 
General Ulloa. That commander, as prudent as he was 
heroic, withdrew his men during the night of May 26, after 
disabling part of the guns and loading the others to the 
muzzle, with lighted matches laid on the touch-holes to burn 
for a certain time. The gunners at first obstinately refused 
to quit their weapons, and shed tears as they embraced them 
before spiking. The forts Rizzardi, Cinque Archi {Five 
Arches), Manin, and another were abandoned at the same 
time. The Austrians, overcome with fatigue, were not vigilant, 
and the Venetians retired without loss by the bridge and on 
the barges in the lagoon. 

In the morning, an Austrian patrol, struck by the perfect 
silence in the fortress, entered and found it empty. The 
enemy were possessed of a mere mound of ruins, where a 
man could not walk four paces without falling into a hole 
made by a shell. The cannon continued to go off as the 
matches burnt down, and the gunners, now within the city, 
each fancied that he could in turn recognise the " last word " 
of his beloved piece. Fort San Giuliano blew up, carrying 
with its debris the bodies of an Austrian detachment in 
occupation. At the same time Fort Cinque Archi blew up 
and cut off communication with Venice from the main land 
by the railway. Such were the farewells to the foe from the 
defenders of Malghera. 

The great advanced post of Venice on the mainland had 
fallen. There remained for the citizens the lines of defence 
on the lagoons. The circle of iron and fire around the 
devoted place was ever narrowed, but Manin and his fellow- 
patriots remained indomitable in their resolve. The increase 
of peril only redoubled the energy of the defenders. The 
people of the city, and the bold mariners of Chioggia, came 
in crowds to aid the soldiers in destroying, in a few days, 



Effects of Bombarfcment 287 

eight arches of the great bridge besides the five which had 
been blown up. The enormous structure, composed of two 
hundred and twenty-two arches, was about four thousand yards 
in length, and the causeway, henceforth widely separated from 
the mainland, was defended by four strong batteries, three 
upon the bridge itself, the fourth on a small island, and by a 
flotilla of gunboats. This portion of the defences, the key of 
Venice, was in charge of General Ulloa, surrounded by a 
band of brave officers. 

On May 31 the Assembly issued a decree expressing 
confidence in the valour of the troops and the determination 
of the people. On June 1, at a review held in the Piazza San 
Marco, the crowd loudly applauded the survivors of the 
garrison of Malghera. Between June 2 and June 6 the 
Austrians, maintaining the blockade at the cost of much 
suffering and loss from the fever of the lagoons, made attacks 
in great force on the southern lines of defence towards the 
mouths of the Adige and the Brenta by land, and towards 
Chioggia and Brondolo by sea. At every point they were 
repulsed. On June 13 six batteries of the enemy opened 
fire against the works of the great bridge. The Venetian reply 
was very formidable, but was unable to silence the Austrian 
guns and howitzers, and some of the bombs from the hostile 
batteries began to fall at the entrance of Cannaregio, the 
quarter of the city nearest to the great bridge. The people, 
wholly unaccustomed to such visitors, were not for an instant 
daunted. "You may bombard us," was the cry, "but you 
cannot come in. The bombs are more welcome than the 
Croats. Let our old houses fall ! " They then quietly with- 
drew, with their furniture and other effects, to the part of the 
city least exposed to hostile fire. 

On June 23 the defenders of Venice suffered a great loss 
in the explosion of the powder-magazine in the chief battery 
on the railway-bridge. Colonel Rosaroll, in command, soon 
restored order, rallied his men, and remounted the national 



288 1bero patriots 

flag, waving it in defiance of the Austrians. He fell at once, 
mortally wounded by a bullet, crying to his cannoneers who 
hurried to raise him, " To your guns ! to your guns ! " 
This brave man was an ex-officer of the Neapolitan army. 
When the priest who attended him in his last moments in- 
quired if he died in peace with all mankind, " I have not an 
enemy in the world," he replied, " except the King of Naples 
and the Austrian invaders." His successor in command at 
the great battery, a Venetian named Coluzzi, was killed on 
July 5. On the following night the work was surprised by 
an Austrian detachment brought up in barges. The new 
Venetian commander, Colonel Cosenz, was wounded by the 
bayonet of a Croat, but a body of troops in reserve rescued 
him, and drove the assailants headlong into the sea. 

During the whole month of June, hostilities had given the 
enemy no advantage after the capture of Fort Malghera. 
Some negotiations opened by Manin with the Austrian govern- 
ment failed in consequence of their demand for unconditional 
surrender, and the people of Venice maintained their attitude 
of resolute defiance. On June 26 the municipal council voted 
a new tax of six millions of lire. Early in July the com- 
missariat department was reorganised, and a new " Committee 
of Subsistence " was established with universal powers. The 
mass of the people were now living on bread alone, and the 
families of the middle class, that to which Manin belonged, 
shared the penury of the multitude. 

The vigour of the defence never slackened, and nocturnal 
sorties were often made with success. The supply of 
ammunition, diminished by two accidental explosions at the 
powder-mills, was causing uneasiness. The besiegers now 
adopted a new device. On July 12 a score of balloons 
suddenly appeared rising above the Austrian squadron off 
the Lido, and little clouds of smoke and successive explosions 
showed that each balloon had carried up a bomb. Not 
one of these missiles from the air fell upon the city, most 



IDenice Bombarfcefc 289 

of them exploding on the Lido or on the lagoons, while some 
of the balloons, passing beyond the city and the waters, 
flung their projectiles, amidst the laughter of the citizens, 
on the heads of the assailants of Venice. 

About the middle of July the besiegers altered their plan 
of attack. They were suffering very severely from cholera 
and the marsh-fever, and on July 18 the Austrians abandoned 
the extensive and costly works constructed before Brondolo, 
leaving behind a vast quantity of materials. They then 
retired to a distance, after burning the habitations and inun- 
dating the country. The garrison of Brondolo quickly sallied 
forth, let off the waters, and saved a quantity of provisions ; 
but they unhappily introduced into Venice, from the enemy's 
camp, when they returned, the cholera which had not yet 
reached the city. At the chief point of attack, in front of 
the railway-bridge, new Austrian batteries were established, 
and on the night of July 29 for the first time, bombs fell 
far within the city. From twenty-eight guns, mounted on 
platforms and inclined at an angle of forty-five degrees, 
twenty-four pound cold shot, bombs, and red-hot balls 
rained on all the western portion of Venice, after a parabolic 
flight ranging from four thousand to nearly six thousand 
yards. 

The populous quarters, Cannaregio and Santa Croce, nearest 
to the enemy, were cruelly ravaged by this new bombard- 
ment, and most of the inhabitants — mainly women, children, 
and aged men — migrated in haste, carrying off beds and their 
most useful articles of furniture, amid the clatter of falling 
chimneys and the lurid light of bursting bombs and of 
houses all aflame. Eye-witnesses of the scene have told 
of the calm resignation which reigned amongst the fugitives ; 
the women, with infants at their breasts, or leading little ones 
by the hand, passing on in dignified silence. The crowd 
thus driven from their homes encumbered the ducal palace 
thrown open to them, its courts and porticoes, and the 

?9 



2 9 o Ifoero patriots 

church cloisters and open galleries ; others took refuge in the 
Giudecca, the ancient Jewish quarter, or in the more distant 
isles, or in shipping on the lagoon. In no bombarded, 
beleaguered town was there ever a nobler display of calm, 
heroic endurance of ill for freedom's sake. 

The Austrian fire, vigorously maintained, wrought dire 
mischief to the productions of Venetian art. Many splendid 
houses on the Grand Canal were struck by from ten to forty 
cannon-balls or bombs. The marvellous facades of the 
palace greatly suffered. The beautiful arcade of the Rialto 
was pierced. Several churches, rich in paintings, sculpture, 
and the tombs of heroes, were mutilated or set on fire. The 
balls passed through the Scuola di San Rocco, covered with 
the magnificent compositions of Tintoretto, and one carried 
away his chef-d'ceuvre, the Moses striking the Rock. 

Under this trial, Manin, the Assembly, the civil and military 
committees, and all the people maintained the same level 
of absolute heroism. Pepe, the commander-in-chief, and the 
Assembly issued addresses of encouragement and of high 
praise for the patience, bravery, firmness, good order, and 
mutual affection displayed by all ranks of the citizens. If 
the Austrian besiegers had depended for success on the 
terrors of bombardment or on the force of their arms, they 
would never have reduced Venice. They succeeded at last 
only by the aid of those unconquerable foes of beleaguered 
towns, pestilence and famine. 

As distress for food increased in the city, an effort was 
made to break the blockade. Early in the morning of August i, 
twelve hundred soldiers under the command of Colonel 
Sirtori, a brave man who had been a priest, sallied out from 
Chioggia, made a descent on the mainland, passed the Brenta, 
drove in the enemy's outposts, and returned in the evening 
with two hundred oxen, some wine, corn, and other supplies, 
bearing also a flag captured from the foe. The announcement 
of this success was received with rapturous applause at the 



Cbolera In tDentce 291 

Fenice theatre, where some artistes and amateurs, " for the 
benefit of the country," were playing Rossini's grand opera 
William Tell amid the crash of cannon-balls and the bursting 
of bombs around the edifice. 

The end of resistance was, however, daily drawing closer. 
The Venetian army was greatly reduced in numbers, far 
more by sickness than by the enemy's fire, and its ranks 
could no longer be supplied with recruits. The besiegers, 
after the successful sortie, had compelled the inhabitants of 
the coast to withdraw into the interior with their cattle, 
grain, and every kind of provisions. The navy alone could 
now, by any possibility, revictual Venice, but the commanders 
of the squadron, in face of the force arrayed against them, 
and of other difficulties, deemed it impossible to effect any- 
thing, and no attempt was made. 

The word "capitulation" began to be whispered in certain 
high quarters, and a petition, signed by a few persons, was 
presented to the Assembly, at the instance of the cardinal- 
patriarch and another personage. The people went to the 
palace of the archbishop on August 3, crying " Death to 
the Patriarch " ; but Tommaseo, with some deputies of the 
Assembly and some civic guards, induced them to disperse 
peaceably. The British consul, under orders from his 
government, urged a cessation of resistance, and was roundly 
rebuked by Manin. It was, nevertheless, impossible for the 
brave president to disregard the desperate position of his 
native city. The cholera was daily making more serious 
ravages amongst a population enfeebled by famine, crowded 
into narrow places of refuge, exposed to a scorching sun 
by day and to a cold, humid air by night. The Subsistence 
Committee reported that the stock of grain could not last 
longer than August 24. 

The great hero-patriot could not but feel that he must not, 
in sheer obstinacy, allow the utter destruction of a people who 
might yet have a happy future of freedom. On August 6, 



292 1bero patriots 

after an anxious and exciting discussion of the state of affairs, 
the assembly, by fifty-six votes against thirty-seven, carried a 
motion "granting to President Manin the full liberty of 
providing, as he shall consider best, for the honour and safety 
of Venice." For a few days longer the city endured fear- 
ful losses from disease, and the fiery hail from the Austrian 
batteries fell faster than ever. The exterior works, the floating 
batteries, and the flotilla of gunboats were more than half 
destroyed. Further resistance was impossible, but it was only 
on the morning of August 24, the very day on which the store 
of food was exhausted, that the capitulation of Venice was 
signed. Her heroic defence ranked her for ever in the roll 
of great names of besieged towns on which history has re- 
corded Saguntum and Saragossa, Leyden and Londonderry, 
Lady smith and Mafeking. 

The ex-dictator, excluded from amnesty, with about forty 
other leading Venetians, was able to escape the mean and 
cruel vengeance of Austria on board a French man-of-war. 
Accompanied by his beloved wife and their two children, 
he reached Marseilles, where another cruel blow fell on the 
sorely stricken man in the death of his wife from cholera. 
The widower's only worldly possessions lay in a few hundred 
pounds forced on his acceptance by his grateful and admiring 
fellow-citizens out of the remnant in the public treasury when 
he went into exile. This little stock was quickly exhausted 
by the expenses of travel and of illness, and soon after arrival 
in Paris Manin had to work for his own and his children's 
bread as a teacher of Italian, sternly refusing all offers of aid 
from old and new friends. His chief sorrow lay in seeing 
the protracted pain of his daughter Emilia, the precocious 
companion, even in her childhood, of her father's thoughts 
and cares for Italy. The loving heart of the father, as she 
slowly succumbed to a mysterious malady, endured for her 
a martyrdom far more trying than that of the scaffold or the 
stake. Suffering himself from disease of the heart, the noble 



/Ratlin's Beatb 293 

man, in all weathers, daily trudged his long, weary way through 
the streets of Paris to the places of his engagement in tuition. 

In January 1854 Manin's daughter died, and his remaining 
days were those of constant mourning. He could take no 
joy in what she could not share; even restoration to his 
beloved Venice would have been naught without her presence. 
He lived through the Crimean War, and saw the dawn of a 
new hope for Italy in the part played before Sebastopol by the 
Italian troops of Victor Emmanuel, King of Sardinia and 
Piedmont. An avowed republican, Manin was willing, for 
the sake of Italy, to accept a monarchical leader in the path 
to Italian unity and freedom, and one of his last acts was to 
sign, in August 1857, the circular of the Italian National 
Society, a body formed by himself to support, in that cause, 
the House of Savoy. On September 22 of the same year he 
died in the same room which had been the scene of his 
daughter's long agony. 

Throughout Italy, and most of all in Venice, the tidings of 
the great patriot's death brought sincere and deep mourning. 
The mean and detestable tyranny of Austria, rampant in the 
city of the lagoons, forbade the performance of any funeral 
service for the illustrious dead. To pray for the soul of a 
patriot was a crime in Venice, and the interdict of barbarous 
rulers caused the strange spectacle of crowds of all ranks filling 
a church and bowed in silent prayer, while spies and police 
kept jealous ears and eyes alert for any utterance of the 
petitions which rose in wordless supplication from every heart. 

Not for ever was Austria thus to rule in Venice. The work 
of Manin had not been fruitless, and the impression made 
by his defence of his native city had its share in causing 
the Franco-Austrian war of 1859, which ended in the cession 
of Western Lombardy to Victor Emmanuel, and in that of 
Venetia, after the Austro-Prussian war of 1866, to the French 
emperor, Louis Napoleon, for the purpose of its transfer to 
the same sovereign, as King of Italy. Venice was at last able 



294 1bero patriots 

to render due honour to the remains of her great citizen, 
which were brought, in 1868, from their resting-place in Paris 
to his native city, where a statue was, in 1875, erected to the 
memory of a truly great and noble man. 

We come finally, in this record of the champions of freedom, 
to our last representative man, the most brilliant of Italian 
hero-patriots, Giuseppe Garibaldi. We have no space here 
for a complete account of his wonderful career, and can only 
attempt a sketch of the man himself and of the chief exploits 
by which he won distinction in his native land. He was the 
last hero of the heroic age of New Italy, the most popular, the 
most legendary, in the sense of the one most resembling a 
hero of romance. The " grand old Lion of Democracy," as 
he has been styled, was, on the moral and spiritual side of his 
nature, one of the greatest men in modern history. " He had 
all the instincts of the lion ; not merely the headlong cour- 
age, but the far nobler qualities of magnanimity, placability, 
self-denial, attributed to the idealised king of the animals. 
His impulses were all generous, his motives invariably upright, 
his conscience unerring." A more knightly, royal heart never 
beat under the breastplate of a Bayard or a Sidney than that 
which was covered by the famous red shirt of this splendid 
soldier of Italian liberty. He comes before us now as the 
central figure of a magnificent, incomparable drama of which 
the stage was the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and the 
audience an applauding, breathless world. Ever calm and 
great in success ; ever serene and unshaken when he was 
forced to retire before hopeless odds ; never anything but 
dignified and great in failure and obscurity ; one of the two or 
three men living on the earth at any one time for whom money 
and rank have absolutely no temptation ; an embodied 
testimony to the possibility of that civic virtue which was the 
one sublime and redeeming quality of the paganism of old 
Rome; a faithful soldier who might have been a king, and 





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GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI. 



Uhc Gatlbalfci family 295 

preferred to live, after glorious successes which made him the 
idol of his countrymen, in a condition one degree above that 
of a common Italian peasant ; always a hero, even to his own 
servants and amid sordid circumstances ; unspoiled by the 
admiration of the world and the adulation of his friends, and 
retaining to the last all the sweet calm simplicity of his early 
days ; a warrior with hands always unstained by plunder, by 
cruelty, by useless shedding of blood, Giuseppe Garibaldi will 
stand out before the eyes of posterity as the noblest of citizens 
and patriots, as a man who was a conqueror but no statesman ; 
not always wise, but never debased by any thought of self ; a 
true and perfect gentleman to all who knew his unstudied 
grace and natural dignity, the signs of a great heart and of a 
sweet and manly nature which revealed itself in every word 
and action. 

The name Garibaldi^ " bold in war," is certainly German, 
betokening old Lombard descent, and his Teutonic origin 
was shown in his long sunlit hair, tawny beard, calm slow 
speech, measured tread, and total absence of gesticulation in 
his discourse. From the eleventh century, Garibaldis and 
Garibaldos were numerous in the province of Liguria, the 
narrow mountainous strip of territory extending, in semicircular 
shape, round the Gulf of Genoa, from Mentone to the Gulf of 
Spezzia, and especially in Chiavari ; in which district a 
commune near Ne still bears the name of Garibaldi. In the 
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, we find Garibaldis at 
Genoa, Nice, and Chiavari ; roving, restless, daring men, ever 
siding with the people against the tyrants of their time and 
country. In 1507, after a popular tumult, a Bartolomeo 
Garibaldi, heading the Genoese, was banished from the city 
with his son Ugolino. This son settled in Chiavari ; and 
most of our hero's Italian biographers hold that the famous 
Giuseppe descends from him in a direct line. 

His pedigree can be traced back, however, only to 
Stefano Domenico Garibaldi, born in Chiavari in 1708, a 



296 1bero patriots 

well-known merchant captain. In 1770 the family left 
Chiavari and settled in Nice. There, on July 4 (a famous 
date in freedom's records as " Independence Day " in the 
United States), 1807, Giuseppe Garibaldi, the subject of this 
writing, was born, son of Domenico Garibaldi, captain of his 
own merchantman, and of Rosa Maria Nicoletta Raimondi. 
Of five children, Giuseppe was the second. His father was 
a man held in respect as a model of honesty and hard work, 
and as one of the most expert captains in the Mediterranean, 
in most of whose ports his vessel, the Santa Riparata, 
was well known. Garibaldi's mother, who died in 1852, 
at the age of seventy-six, was ever devotedly loved by her 
famous son, and was a woman notable for her goodness to 
the sick and poor, for her thrifty household management, 
and her absolute honesty. In his autobiography, Garibaldi 
declares that " to her inspiration he owed his patriotic 
feelings," and that " in his greatest dangers by land and sea 
his imagination always conjured up the picture of the pious 
woman prostrated at the feet of the Most High interceding 
for the safety of her beloved." We may note, as another 
coincidence in regard to the future military leader's birth? 
that he first saw the light in the very house and room where, 
in 1758, Massena, Napoleon's famous marshal, was born. 

The young Giuseppe Garibaldi, called " Peppino " by 
his playmates, is described by one of his schoolfellows as 
being " as good, beautiful, and simple as his mother, as honest 
and frugal as his father. Where his genius came from, still 
less his republican notions and his hatred for the priests, 
baffles me, for if ever there was a man who brought up his 
family to ' fear God and honour the king ' it was Padron 
Domenico ; and as for his mother, though not a beghina 
(bigot), she was a pious, gentle soul, took all her boys to 
church, had them confirmed, and until Peppino got his own 
way and became a sailor, he had to go to church and conform 
like the rest of us." As to how far " the boy was father of 



(Baribalfci in 13outb 297 

the man" in the case of the future liberator of Sicily and 
Naples, we learn from the same excellent authority that " he 
was a bright, brave lad who planned all sorts of adventures, 
playing truant when he could get the loan of a gun or coax 
one of the fishermen to take him in his boat. . . . He was 
often silent and thoughtful, and when he had a book that 
interested him he would lie under the olive-trees for hours 
reading. . . . He had a beautiful voice, and knew all the 
songs of the sailors and peasants. Even as a boy we all 
looked up to him and chose him as our umpire, while the 
little ones regarded him as their natural protector. He 
was the strongest and most enduring swimmer I ever knew, 
a very fish in the water, and the stories about his saving a 
washerwoman when he was eight years old, and several boys 
whose boat capsized, when he was twelve, are true." 

As regards education, we know from Garibaldi's own 
testimony that he learned algebra and geometry, astronomy, 
geography, and commercial law, in order to obtain a certificate 
as merchant captain * and that this knowledge was acquired 
from books by his own persevering, unaided toil. It is clear 
that he had fair natural abilities, and his invariable habit of 
doing thoroughly all that he undertook to acquire or to 
perform was proved by his exquisite handwriting, his unrivalled 
skill at draughts, and his work on shipboard, as testified by 
all who ever sailed with him. Taking to a seafaring career, 
he embarked in his father's brig in 182 1. From cabin-boy 
he became sailor, second mate, first mate, and captain, during 
eleven years of life, ending in February 1832, the time of 
his registration as captain in the (then Italian) department 
of Nice. He was then in his twenty-fifth year, and we may 
now attempt to signalise his personal appearance. 

In the prime of early manhood, Garibaldi, five feet six 
and a half inches in stature, had hair and eyebrows of reddish 
hue, eyes of chestnut-brown, a spacious forehead, aquiline 
nose, mouth of medium size, round chin, and healthy colour, 



298 1bero patriots 

Thus he is described in the register of the royal navy of 
Sardinia and Piedmont for 1833, into which, for a certain 
purpose, Garibaldi volunteered in December of that year. 
Another account gives him at this time as "a muscular, 
broad-chested sailor, stalwart and well-knit, his long chestnut- 
golden hair flowing back from the fair and ample forehead, 
his brows slightly knit, his keen eyes gleaming from under 
their long lashes." The personal fascination of the man 
and of his demeanour and words, and the influence which 
he gained over all who fell under that wonderful charm, 
were almost unparalleled. The beauty of his grave, sweet 
smile was such as no beholder could ever forget. 

We must now explain with what object Garibaldi had 
entered the royal navy. He had become, in zeal for the 
freedom and unity of his native land, a member of Young 
Italy, and his sole and simple aim in entering on board 
the royal frigate Euridice as pilot was to enrol in that 
association as many of the king's officers and sailors as 
he could. A decisive hour in Garibaldi's life had come 
when in the autumn of 1833 he had his famous interview with 
Mazzini at Marseilles. That great conspirator in freedom's 
cause rapturously welcomed such an adherent and volunteer 
for Italy, and they parted with the words " Now and for 
ever " as their motto. Utter failure in their enterprise was 
their doom for that time. On the morning of February 4, 
1834, Garibaldi left his ship, landing alone at Genoa to see 
if the preparations for a rising were matured. He never 
returned to the vessel. At the custom-house steps a voice 
whispered in his ear, " All is discovered ! " He knew himself 
to be suspected, because on the previous day he had been 
transferred from the Euridice to the admiral's flag-ship. 
He was already a deserter in having quitted his ship without 
leave, and his only safety lay in flight. 

After exchanging his uniform for an old suit of peasant's 
clothes, and hiding himself for ten days, he arrived, in another 



(BaribalM in 3Bta3tl 299 

ten days' tramping, "with the constellation Cassiopeia for 
his guide," in his own words, at his native Nice, footsore, 
hungry, and so tattered that his aunt turned him away from 
the door as a beggar, and his own mother could scarcely 
recognise him. The pious, gentle creature, and her God- 
fearing, king-honouring spouse, were naturally horrified in 
learning that their beloved son, the " Captain Garibaldi " 
of whom his townsmen were so proud as a skilled navigator, 
was a deserter from the royal navy and a fugitive from justice. 
He was still, on Italian soil, in great danger, and he soon 
crossed the frontier of Italy and France, and made his way 
to Marseilles, where he read in the Peuple Souverain news- 
paper the royal decree condemning him, with many others, 
to death, " in default," as " a conspirator and bandit." Such 
was the unpromising first appearance on the revolutionary 
stage of one of the most illustrious men of modern days. 
We must now pass very rapidly over a period of fourteen 
years, which may be summed up as a time of preparation 
for the patriot's second appearance in that character. 

After voyages to the Black Sea and to Tunis, Garibaldi 
started for South America in 1836, sailing for Rio Janeiro. 
He took service with the republic of Rio Grande do Sul, 
a vast territory belonging to Brazil, then in open rebellion 
and war against that empire. This most romantic portion 
of his career furnishes ample materials for an epic blending 
the charms of the Iliad and the Odyssey. As commander 
both on land and sea he won high distinction. His experiences 
included marvellously propitious and terribly adverse fortune, 
and every imaginable variety of adventure, peril, and escape. 
As a prisoner subjected to the rack and other torture, in 
shipwrecks, in forest wanderings, winning battles, storming 
fortresses, standing his ground with a handful of men against 
great odds, beating strong squadrons with a few small vessels, 
giving throughout proofs of the rarest humanity and gene- 
rosity, disobeying orders to sack captured cities, exercising 



3oo 1bero patriots 

a mixture of authority and glamour over his followers which 
almost enabled him to dispense with ordinary rule and 
discipline, he proved himself a marvel among adventurous 
mankind. It was after losing a flotilla in a hurricane on 
the coast of Santa Caterina, where he landed wrecked and 
forlorn, having seen his bravest and most cherished Italian 
friends shot down or drowned, that he fell in with his first 
wife, Anita, a Brazilian creole. She proved to be almost 
as daring and long-enduring as her heroic husband, and 
was by his side in all fights by land and sea. 

The fortunes of the republic of Rio Grande declined, and 
then, after giving birth' to her first-born, Menotti Garibaldi, 
in September, 1840, she went with that infant and his father 
through the terrible hardships and dangers of a disastrous 
retreat. Garibaldi then betook himself, with his wife and 
sons, to Montevideo, where he settled for a time as a general 
broker and a teacher of mathematics. When war broke 
out between the Uruguay Republic and Buenos Ayres, then 
ruled by the savage tyrant Rosas, Garibaldi drew his sword 
for the state which had sheltered him, and received command 
of a little squadron operating in the Parana against a largely 
superior Argentine force. 

There can be little doubt that the enthusiasm of Garibaldi 
in behalf of men struggling for their rights in South America 
was largely due to the belief that he could there realise 
his long-cherished idea of forming an Italian Legion, and 
thus training Italians, in fighting for the liberties of others, 
for the day when he should lead them against the foes of 
their own country. Italy was ever in his inmost thoughts, 
under the Southern Cross as under the Great Bear. His 
work in South America had its ample reward of credit gained 
in his native land. He maintained a correspondence with 
Mazzini, either directly or through his friend Cuneo, the 
editor of a newspaper in Montevideo. In the Apostolato, 
a periodical published by Mazzini in London, Garibaldi's 



GarfbalM at /l&ontevtoeo 301 

achievements beyond the Atlantic were first narrated for 
Italians in Europe, in glowing colours, in 1842. Five years 
later, when a free press was granted in Tuscany and Piedmont, 
Mazzini sent the same accounts to the Alba in Florence, 
to the Tribune in Genoa, and to the Co?icordia in Turin, so 
that, on return to Italy, the hero found that his reputation 
as a dashing and skilful leader had preceded him. 

Garibaldi had formed, from his countrymen settled in that 
region of South America, an Italian Legion of about five 
hundred men. From 1843 to 1845, ne an d his followers 
shared in part of the notable defence of Montevideo, during 
an eight years' siege by the army of Buenos Ayres, fighting 
both by land and sea with great courage and success ; and in 
1846 they played a brilliant part in a campaign in Uruguay. 
To Garibaldi's character and conduct in the Montevidean 
struggle high testimony was borne by Lord Howden, the 
admiral in command of a British squadron sent to the La 
Plata in 1845. That nobleman, some years later, when certain 
Catholic peers protested against the " filibuster's " defence of 
Rome, declared Garibaldi, whom he had known in command 
of the garrison of Montevideo, to have been "the one dis- 
interested individual among numbers who only sought their 
personal aggrandisement," and he paid a tribute at the same 
time to his "great courage and military talent." After the 
hero's victory at Salto Sant' Antonio, of February 8, 1846, 
the French Admiral Laine, commanding his country's squadron 
in the La Plata, wrote to Garibaldi congratulating him on his 
intelligent and intrepid conduct, and on the simplicity and 
modesty which enhanced the value of his report of a feat of 
arms " whose entire honour is due to you." 

The hour came at last for these great qualities to be dis- 
played on the stage of European struggle. Early in 1848, the 
startling news of revolutionary movements in Italy arrived at 
Montevideo, and Garibaldi, with a portion of his Legion, 
eighty-five men, and two cannon, embarked for his native 



302 1bero patriots 

land on board the brigantine Sfieranza, chartered partly with 
their own savings. The little band were starting towards the 
fulfilment of the longing, the passion, of their lives. They 
were about to dedicate the weapons gloriously wielded in the 
service of the oppressed in other countries to their own beloved 
Italy. On April 15 the little expedition quitted Montevideo 
with a favourable breeze, and was soon on the broad Atlantic. 

The voyage was short and prosperous, and the time was 
usefully employed. The unlettered were taught by the better 
instructed. Gymnastic exercises were not neglected. A 
patriotic hymn, composed and set to music by one of the 
little band, was the evening prayer, sung every night by the 
group standing on deck. 

Garibaldi's first intention had been to land on the coast of 
Tuscany, but his dear friend and comrade, Anzani, was dying 
of consumption, and the need of provisions suitable to his 
state compelled the commander to put in at Santa Pola, on 
the Spanish coast. The captain of the vessel returned on 
board with news of the most exciting nature. Palermo, Milan, 
Venice, and many sister cities had started the revolution ; the 
Piedmontese army was pursuing the Austrians, and all Italy 
was in arms for the sacred cause of freedom. The men on 
the Speranza rushed on deck with embracings, ravings, and 
tears of joy. Anzani sprang to his feet, excitement lending 
him a moment's strength. " Make all sail ! " was the instant 
cry. In a few days Italy was in sight, and a landing was made 
at Nice in the last week of June. There Garibaldi met his 
Anita and his children, who had left America some months 
earlier, and were staying with his aged mother, whom he had 
not seen for fourteen years. He was warmly welcomed by 
the people of his native town, proud of his achievements 
for freedom in the New World. After a few days' rest the 
party sailed for Genoa, along with a few young " Nizzards " 
who had insisted on accompanying them to the war. They 
were welcomed by the people in a tumult of joy. In a few 



Garibalfct in 3tal£ 303 

days Anzani, a capable and honourable man, a soldier of the 
most lofty character, died of his wasting' malady, a severe loss 
to the cause of Italian freedom. 

Garibaldi promptly made his way to the head-quarters 
at Roverbella, between Verona and Mantua, of Carlo Alberto, 
the King of Sardinia, to offer the services of himself and 
his comrades to the man who had in 1834 condemned 
him to death and caused his exile. He was coolly received, 
and the chieftain, eager for Italian freedom, was obliged to 
rejoin his followers at Milan without obtaining permission 
to serve his country in any capacity, as the authorities seemed 
to have little belief in the use of volunteers. At last Casati, 
a member of the " Provisional Government " of Lombardy, 
attached the little force to the Lombard army, and Garibaldi, 
stationed at Milan, was entrusted with the organisation of 
various fragmentary bodies of troops, including his men from 
South America. 

In Lombardy, the contest was soon ended for a time 
by an armistice, capitulation to the Austrian forces, and a 
general flight of the patriots. Garibaldi made his way to 
Como, resolved to carry on a guerilla warfare, if nothing else 
could be effected ; but he was obliged to pass into Piedmont 
for a time. Then a rally of the revolutionists came, and 
warfare against the Austrians took place on the shores of 
Lakes Maggiore and Como. A hostile column marching 
from the south was defeated after a smart fight, and the 
victory gave Garibaldi and his men possession of the Varese 
district. The cause was, however, hopeless in that quarter. 
The Austrian forces were increasing in numbers in every 
direction, and the body under Garibaldi was at last reduced 
to about seventy men, who retired across the frontier into 
Switzerland. There were many Italians in that country 
ready to renew the struggle, but Garibaldi, suffering from 
fever caught at Roverbella, was obliged to go to Nice for 
recovery. He went thence to Genoa and completed his cure. 



3<m Ifoero patriots 

The state of affairs for Italian freedom was very un- 
promising. Lombardy was again in the power of Austria; 
the Piedmontese army had vanished. Garibaldi, while he 
was at Genoa, started for Sicily, on an invitation from the 
revolutionists of the island, with seventy-two comrades, mostly 
officers of experience, on board a French steamer. When 
the vessel put in at Livorno (Leghorn), the entreaties of the 
people induced the party of patriots to land, under promise 
of a strong column being raised in Tuscany for a march 
into the Kingdom of Naples. The government at Florence, 
however, discouraged the movement, and in November, 
1848, the band found themselves in the Apennines on the 
way to Bologna. At that city they were welcomed by the 
mass of the people, indignant at the treatment accorded to 
brave men who only asked permission to fight against tyrants 
backed by priests. Garibaldi, with about a hundred and 
fifty men, reached Ravenna, intending for Venice; but on 
receiving news of the assassination at Rome of the pope's 
minister, Rossi, the patriot and his men, increased to about 
four hundred, including some fine cavalry, stayed in the 
Romagna, passing from Ravenna to various towns, welcomed 
by the people, and furnished with stores by the municipal 
authorities. 

Garibaldi then marched for Rome, when he heard of the 
pope's flight, and arranged for the incorporation of his Italian 
Legion with the Roman army. The government, under various 
pretexts, kept the patriots away from the capital, dreading 
the influence of " revolutionists " on the people, who were 
then in a mood to exercise their rights. The Legion, almost 
wholly composed of young men of the cultivated classes of 
the towns, and of recruits from distinguished families in the 
different Italian provinces, were calumniated by the clerical 
party as mere brigands and scoundrels, a falsehood at once 
refuted by their personal appearance and by their conduct 
in eyery place which they visited. 



©arfbal&f at 1Rome 305 

During January 1849 Garibaldi and his men remained 
at Macerata, south of Ancona. The " Roman Republic " 
was about to be proclaimed in the ancient metropolis of 
the world, and the body of patriots then crossed the Apennines 
to Rieti, on the way to Rome, now increased in numbers 
to one thousand. Their leader had been elected a deputy to 
the Constitutional Assembly by the people of Macerata, and 
on February 8, 1849, he was one of the first to proclaim 
the republic. Crippled by rheumatism from exposure in 
the mountains, he was carried on the shoulders of his staff- 
officer, Bueno, into the halls of the Assembly. Thus were 
realised, for a brief season, the dream which had occupied 
the hero's mind from the days of his childhood, and the 
hopes of his beloved Italy's resurrection, which had made 
his heart throb in the depths of American forests and amid 
Atlantic storms. 

At the very hour when the Roman republic, proclaimed 
from the Capitol, was being hailed in the Forum by a long- 
surTering people, the Chauvins beyond the Alps were marching, 
under priestly influence, to the destruction of the newly 
founded state. Republican France was making war on the 
Italian republic in order to restore the Pope. The very 
thought of a united Italy had terrified the autocrats and 
Jesuits of Europe, and they were in full sympathy with the 
outrageous assault of France on a people, whose only crime 
was that of desiring constitutional freedom. 

In April 1849 the French troops were at Civita Vecchia, 
and Garibaldi, after being quartered with the Legion, now 
of twelve hundred men, at Anagni, received orders to repair 
to Rome. These defenders of the city encamped in the 
Vatican square, and were charged to garrison the walls from 
Porta San Pancrazio to Porta Portese. The defence of the 
city was committed to General Avezzana, an officer of dis- 
tinguished service in Spain and in South America, a man 
of skill and of unwearied activity, found at all points where 

20 



306 Ibero patriots 

his presence was needed. On April 30 the French forces, 
under General Oudinot, son of Napoleon's marshal, were 
seen marching in column along the road from Civita Vecchia. 
The French consul in Rome, and Oudinot's friends within 
the city, had sent him warning of the preparations for defence, 
of the resolute determination of the people, and of the known 
valour of many of the combatants in past campaigns. To 
all such remarks he replied, with true French insolence, 
"Les Italiens ne se battent pas." He was soon to be rudely 
undeceived. 

The enemy advanced, the officers wearing white gloves 
and with sheathed swords. At cannon-shot range, the French 
planted some guns in commanding positions, while sharp- 
shooters were sent through the woodlands on the right, and 
the Chasseurs de Vincennes to the heights on the left. Inside 
the city, Avezzana, viewing the enemy's approach from the 
summit of a church, gave the signal for the ringing of the 
tocsin. The sound brought the whole population to the 
walls, the Roman matrons clustering there to encourage their 
husbands, sons, and brothers to the fight. When the hostile 
force arrived within less than two hundred yards from the 
walls, the Roman artillerymen opened with their guns from 
the bastions of San Marto. To this welcome the Chasseurs 
de Vincennes instantly responded with a fire which caused 
two officers and several men to fall mortally wounded at their 
guns. On finding themselves under a cross-fire from the 
walls and from the Vatican, the French brought up a battery 
which did deadly mischief to the besieged, who quickly lost 
six officers and many men, and had a gun dismounted. 

Not the slightest confusion occurred among the brave 
defenders of the city. Women and boys carried off the 
wounded, and fresh troops took the place of the fallen. 
Oudinot then found it needful to summon both his brigades, 
and to plant two more guns. He was now to encounter a foe 
yet unknown in quality to Frenchmen in Europe. Garibaldi 



(Baribalfci IDictorious 307 

had seen the importance of the scattered buildings and 
parks outside the city gates, and had occupied many of the 
villas, the woods, and the walls surrounding them. As the 
enemy fell back from a first assault, he flung his men, in 
two companies, like stones from a sling, against their right 
flank. At the head of the first company was Captain Montaldi, 
a man of the coolest courage, distinguished in the Legion at 
Montevideo. In a short time he was disabled by nineteen 
bullets, yet still fought on his knees with his broken sword, 
and only when the French were driven to a precipitate re- 
treat did his men carry him dead from the field. As he 
and his men fought, so did all, under the eye of Garibaldi, 
directing the contest from Villa Pamphili. Then, summoning 
the reserve, the hero himself led on the students — lads never 
yet under fire — in a general bayonet-charge which, with the 
loss of many excellent officers and men for the victors, ended 
in the rapid retirement of the French before those who, 
according to General Oudinot, " were not men to fight." 
Garibaldi was left master of the field, and the enemy returned 
to Castel Guido with the loss of four hundred left dead 
on the ground, five hundred and thirty wounded, and two 
hundred and sixty prisoners. The troops of the Roman 
Republic had two hundred and fourteen killed and wounded, 
including twenty-five officers, and one prisoner taken. This 
was a brave fellow named Ugo Bassi, a chaplain who had 
remained behind to assist a dying man, his only weapon 
being the cross of which the French troops had come 
to pose as the chivalrous protectors. Oudinot, after this 
reception at Rome, gained time for the arrival of reinforce- 
ments from France by opening sham negotiations with the 
Roman government. 

The Neapolitan troops of "King Bomba," Ferdinand II., 
had invaded the Roman territory in conjunction with French 
and Spanish forces, and the Italian Legion, with other re- 
publican troops, were sent to encounter them. The enemy 



3©8 1bero patriots 

were severely repulsed, in May, at Palestrina (the ancient 
Praeneste, a summer retreat of Augustus and Tiberius, of 
Horace, Hadrian, and Antoninus), twenty-two miles east-by- 
south of Rome. In the same month, the whole of the Nea- 
politan army, with the king in personal command, was 
encountered by the Italian patriots, numbering eight thousand 
men, under General Rosselli, at Velletri, twenty-five miles 
south-east of Rome. Garibaldi had marched with the van- 
guard of the Legion, reconnoitring the enemy's movements, 
and found them in retreat. 

When he reached the heights overlooking Velletri, he halted 
his men to right and left of the road, with two guns command- 
ing the route. A Neapolitan column then advanced along 
the road, supported by strong lines of sharpshooters on the 
flanks, in the vineyards, and attacked the Roman outposts 
with great fury, driving them back on the main body. The 
Italian cavalry, mounted on horses mostly young and untrained, 
rushed back at full gallop on being charged by the Bourbon 
horse, and Garibaldi incurred the utmost peril in trying to 
stay their flight. He and some of his staff threw their horses 
across the path, and in an instant the ground was covered with 
prostrate men and steeds. The road was, at this point, a 
narrow cutting, which was completely blocked. The enemy's 
horsemen rode up to sabre the fallen men, but Garibaldi and 
his officers escaped in the confusion, and the men of the 
Italian Legion, drawn up in the vineyards on each side, 
drove off the enemy by an energetic charge. The future 
conqueror of Sicily and Naples was saved mainly by the 
efforts of a company of young lads on his right, who rushed 
furiously on the foe when they saw him fall. He was 
terribly bruised, but had no limb broken. Another charge 
of the Roman forces drove the enemy headlong into Velletri, 
and they abandoned the city during the night, with the soldiers 
marching barefoot and the cannon-wheels muffled with straw. 
At dawn, the Neapolitan army was seen in swift retreat along 



Surrender of 1Rome 309 

the Via Appia, towards Terracina and Naples. We must now 
return to the fortunes of the patriots beleaguered in Rome. 

The Roman garrison was wholly unequal to maintaining an 
eighteen miles' circuit of walls against numerous foes amply 
supplied with heavy guns and with all the munitions of war. 
By June i the French were masters of the positions command- 
ing the city, and vain attempts to retake them were made by 
the Roman forces, at the cost of many precious lives. The 
republican government had neglected their opportunities of 
erecting defensive works on the important positions outside 
the walls, and the fate of the city was sealed. On the night 
between June 2 and 3 the French captured Quattre Venti, and 
other important posts outside Porta San Pancrazio, on the 
west of the city, towards Castel Guido and Civita Vecchia. 
Garibaldi, knowing the ground lost to be the key of the 
position, ordered an attack to be made for its recovery. The 
most heroic attempts were made by the Italian Legion and by 
other corps, supported by the artillery from the walls, until 
night had fallen on June 3 ; but the French were too strong, 
and every effort failed. The Legion, one thousand men, lost 
twenty-three officers, nearly all being slain, and other bodies 
of men suffered heavily. On that day the fate of Rome was 
decided, and the city, assailed by heavy bombardment, was 
compelled to capitulate on July 2. The commander-in-chief, 
with Garibaldi and many of his comrades, had quitted the 
place " rather than submit," in his own words, " to the 
degradation of laying down their arms before the priest- 
ridden soldiers of Bonaparte" (the French president, Louis 
Napoleon). 

Attended by his brave wife, Anita, who had her hair cut 
off, and mounted a horse in men's clothes in order to elude 
observation, Garibaldi reached Tivoli on the morning of 
July 3. The spirit of many of his followers was broken, and 
they deserted, one by one, or in small parties, under cover of 
night. At Terni, in Umbria, about seventy miles north-east 



3io 1bero patriots 

of Rome, the gallant Colonel Forbes, a Briton who loved 
the Italian cause as well as the best of Italy's own sons, 
joined Garibaldi, with several hundred well-drilled men, and 
the party plunged into the Apennines, vainly striving to 
rouse the people. The Austrian troops, aided by the priests 
and peasants as spies, were eagerly tracking the column of 
patriots, which melted day by day through desertions due 
to despair of the cause ; but the men who remained with 
Garibaldi were usually found by the pursuers in strong 
positions not easily assailed. 

On the way to the little republic of San Marino, the smallest 
independent state of Europe, lying among the eastern spurs 
of the Apennines, a few miles south-west of Rimini on the 
Adriatic, the rear-guard of the Garibaldians was attacked by 
an Austrian corps and put to flight, in spite of the utmost 
efforts of Anita and Colonel Forbes, made while Garibaldi 
was in advance, conferring with the authorities of the tiny 
state. On arriving at San Marino, the fugitive hero issued an 
order of the day releasing his soldiers and bidding them 
return to their homes. Then, with his wife, Colonel Forbes, 
and some men who refused to abandon him, he made his 
way to the coast, and the party, to the number of about two 
hundred, embarked in thirteen fishing-boats and started for 
Venice, coasting along the Italian side of the Adriatic. An 
Austrian squadron lying off the coast attacked the little 
fleet, and captured all save four vessels. Garibaldi was on 
board one which escaped to the shore, and he landed, carrying 
in his arms his wife Anita, who was in a dying condition from 
sore fatigue incurred in a delicate state of health. He bade 
his comrades seek refuge where they could, and was able, with 
Anita, to reach the village of La Mandriola, some distance 
north of Ravenna. There his wife died, and the sorely stricken 
man was just able to stagger along to Sant' Alberto, where he 
lay concealed in the house of a tailor, a poor, honest and 
generous man. From his window there, the patriot could see 



Garibalfci in Estle 3** 

the Austrian soldiers stalking along with their usual insolent 
air of mastery. 

It is needless to pursue Garibaldi's adventures further at 
this stage of his marvellous career. For twelve months after 
the fall of Rome, the great patriot was a wanderer, rejected 
here and there by the authorities as " a dangerous man." 
Arrested by the Sardinian government, he was released when 
the Chamber, by an immense majority, carried a motion 
declaring " that act and his threatened expulsion from 
Piedmont to be violations of the rights consecrated by the 
statute-law, of the principles of nationality, and of Italian 
glory." The government was then forced to appeal " to his 
generosity " to leave the country in order to save them from 
Austrian and French molestation. None ever vainly sought 
the generosity of Garibaldi. He promptly acquiesced, and 
went on board a steamer which conveyed him to Nice, where 
he received an enthusiastic welcome from his admiring fellow- 
citizens and took farewell of his aged mother, receiving her 
last blessing. His own motherless children clung to him in 
a scene of the most touching kind, their heroic father pale 
with emotion, and tearing himself away at last in order to 
keep his pledge to be aboard at six in the evening. It was 
September 12, 1849. 

•In June 1850 after a stay of some months at Tangier, 
Garibaldi embarked at Liverpool for New York, where he 
became an assistant in a candle-factory. Pining for a sea-life, 
the former commander of the Montevidean fleet and defender 
of Rome was forced vainly to seek work as a common sailor, 
and returned to the tallow trade. In 1851 he obtained 
commercial employment which took him to Lima, where he 
was warmly welcomed by the wealthy Italian colony, one of 
whom gave him the command of a barque of four hundred 
tons, and sent him on a voyage to China. After four years 
of this seafaring life, Garibaldi found himself at Nice, where 
he had the happiness of embracing his children after five 



3i2 t>ero patriots 

years of exile. The next five years of this chequered career 
present no points of interest. They were spent by him partly 
at sea and partly in cultivating a small property which he 
had purchased in a spot that became, through his residence 
there, the world-famous, ever-renowned islet of Caprera, on 
the northern coast of Sardinia. 

The dawn of political freedom for Italy came in 1859, and 
in February of that year Garibaldi was summoned to Turin 
by Count Cavour, premier in the government of Piedmont 
and Sardinia under King Victor Emmanuel. It was now his 
task to enlist Italian volunteers, but his proceedings were 
hampered by a jealous feeling lest, with his republican notions, 
he should become too prominent and powerful. During 
the war of France and Piedmont against Austria, the hero 
had command of the Chasseurs des Alpes. He beat the 
Austrians at Varese and San Fermo, bewildered his opponents 
by the audacious rashness of his movements on the mountains 
above Como, advanced upon Bergamo and Brescia, and 
pushed on to the summit of the Stelvio Pass. The Peace 
of Villafranca then put an end to the struggle, and Garibaldi, 
again a prey to the torture of rheumatism, passed the autumn 
and winter of 1859 at Genoa, where he was busied in planning 
a new enterprise. 

In the spring of i860, the day of glory for Garibaldi, the 
time for winning immortal renown, at last arrived. The 
island of Sicily had come forward as the champion of freedom, 
throwing down the gauntlet to tyranny. Her heroes were 
few, the ranks of the tyrant of Naples, King Francis, successor 
to his father, " King Bomba," were well filled. The patriots 
who rose were soon scattered, driven from the capital, and 
forced to take to the mountains, the refuge and sanctuary of 
the freedom of nations when the bands in arms for liberty have 
been for the time overpowered by the drilled cohorts of the 
oppressor. A secret committee in Sicily, styled the Buono 
publico ("Commonweal"), was in constant correspondence 



GaribalM 3m>afces Sicily 313 

with the revolutionary committee at Genoa, of which Garibaldi 
was the soul. The people of Palermo learned by a secret 
messenger who landed at Messina on April 10 that an 
expedition was preparing, and soon/to the disgust of Maniscalco, 
the director of police, every dead wall of the Sicilian capital 
displayed, in huge red letters, the terrible words " Garibaldi 
vienef" (" Garibaldi is coming ! ") 

The " Thousand of Marsala," Garibaldi's noble band, started 
from the roadstead of Quarto, at Genoa, on the lovely moonlit 
night of May 5, i860. They were on board two steamers, 
the Lombardo and the Piemonte. After taking on board some 
small arms and ammunition at Talamone, on the coast of 
Tuscany, anchor was weighed for Sicily on the afternoon of 
May 9. On the morning of the nth, the island of Maritimo, 
about thirty miles west of Sicily, was sighted. During the 
voyage, the men had been divided into eight companies, each 
under a captain. The chief of the staff was Sirtori ; and 
General Tiirr, a Hungarian, Garibaldi's "other self" in the 
campaign, was a staff-officer. About noon the expedition put 
into Marsala, on the western coast of Sicily, finding two British 
men-of-war anchored in the roadstead. 

The gallant adventurers — old revolutionists and young 
university students from northern Italy, Hungarian officers 
of the rebellion against Austria in 1848, and French and 
Polish sympathisers with all that invoked the name of liberty 
— could not have arrived at a more lucky moment. The 
cruisers of the King of Naples had steamed eastwards from 
Marsala on that morning, while the Garibaldians were coming 
up from the west. As the Lombardo and the Pie?nonte entered 
the harbour, the hostile vessels were still in sight towards Cape 
San Marco, on the south-west coast. Before they could return 
within cannon-shot, the men on the Piemonte had landed, 
and those on the Lombardo were beginning to disembark. 
The presence of the two British vessels acted as a restraint 
on the Neapolitan captains, and the whole invading force was 



314 1bero patriots 

on shore before the hostile cruisers opened fire with grapeshot 
and shell, which inflicted no injury on the Garibaldians. 
The Piemonte, abandoned to her fate, was carried off by the 
enemy ; the Lombardo had grounded on a sandbank and was 
left behind. The poorer people of Marsala warmly welcomed 
the newcomers ; the magnates and authorities received them 
under protest. 

The prospect before the invaders of Sicily had the alterna- 
tives of victory or destruction. Garibaldi and his men must 
take Palermo or die. On the morning of May 12 the little 
force marched eastwards to Salemi, where the leader proclaimed 
himself dictator of the island in the name of his sovereign, 
Victor Emmanuel. From every quarter the guerilla-bands 
and the picciotti (Sicilian country-folk) came pouring in, and 
on May 15 the army came in sight of the Bourbon forces — 
Neapolitans, and Swiss and Austrian troops in Bourbon pay — 
at Calataflmi, strongly posted along the hills overlooking the 
road, fifty miles from Palermo. Their position was on 
the Pianto dei Romani, fronting the Vita hills on which 
the Garibaldians were ranged. 

The Genoese carbineers, armed with excellent weapons, 
covered the front of the invaders as sharpshooters, with the 
other companies drawn up en echelon (ladderwise) behind them. 
The picciotti) with all their goodwill, were of little use for 
open warfare, being unable to stand the fire of regular troops, 
still less to execute the charges needful for capturing positions. 
Garibaldi's only reliance for real fighting in a regular action 
was on his " Thousand," among whom even the young students 
were quite prepared to put in practice his maxim, " Lose no 
time with artillery, but use your bayonets ! " 

The ground between the two forces was a wide undulating 
space, broken by a few farmsteads. The enemy had about 
two thousand men, with some artillery, and began the action 
by sending forward a few lines of sharpshooters, with supports 
and two guns. Opening fire with carbines and cannon, they 



aatibalM at Calatafimi 315 

advanced until the clang of the Garibaldian bugles gave them 
notice that disciplined men, not mere peasants, were in their 
front. The advancing force halted and recoiled, and the 
"Thousand," with the Genoese carbineers in front, instantly 
charged. Garibaldi's intention was to put to flight the enemy's 
vanguard, and| capture the two guns ; but his impetuous men 
would not heed the sound of " Halt ! " The Bourbon troops 
were driven back by the bayonet on their main body, and 
withdrew to the heights, which were defended with dogged 
courage. In crossing the valley, many Garibaldians fell from 
cannon-fire and musketry, but at the foot of Monte Romano 
they came for a time under shelter. The crest of the enemy's 
position could be reached only after scaling several terraces, 
and each of these was won under a hail of bullets. The 
Genoese fire was alone very effective ; the wretched weapons 
furnished to the " Thousand " by the Sardinian government 
often missing fire. 

As the assailants advanced, a knot of brave youths, fearing 
for Garibaldi, surrounded him in close array, to shelter him 
with their bodies. At the top the Bourbon troops made a 
brave resistance, and many of the chasseurs, having used 
up their ammunition, hurled down stones on the Garibaldians. 
Then the assailants, in a final desperate charge, put their 
foes to flight. The fugitives did not stop until they reached 
the town of Calatafimi, several miles away. The victory 
had cost the " Thousand " eighteen killed and a hundred and 
twenty-eight wounded. 

This first success, slight in its material results, giving the 
victors possession of only one gun, a few rifles, and some 
prisoners, was of immense moral effect on the campaign. A 
handful of "filibusters," spoken of with solemn contempt 
by their foes, had routed a considerable Bourbon force of 
excellent troops. On the morning of May 16 Calatafimi, 
abandoned by the enemy, was occupied by the invaders. 
The retreating foes were severely harassed by the people of 



3 i6 Ifoero patriots 

the villages on the route, north-eastwards, to Palermo, to 
which city the fleeing troops carried terror for the Bourbon 
party, and confidence for the patriots. On May 17 the 
invading array resumed its march, welcomed with frantic 
enthusiasm at every village and little town. From the 
beautiful plains of Alcamo and Partinico, the column as- 
cended, by way of Borgetto, to the plateau of Renne, over- 
looking the lovely city of Palermo, and the valley in which it 
lies, the region which, abounding in fine orange-trees, with their 
masses of fruit, is known as the Conca d'Oro, or Shell of 
Gold. On the plateau the Garibaldians had their endurance 
tried by two days of heavy rain; but all discomfort was 
cheerfully borne in freedom's cause. 

On May 20 the leader advanced his outposts to within 
a mile of Monreale, whence the high road leads directly down 
to Palermo, not five miles away. Garibaldi, in face of the 
great force, at least twelve thousand men, opposed to his 
few hundreds, resorted to a movement of almost unparal- 
leled boldness and of consummate skill. If the Neapolitan 
commander, General Lanza, were informed of his plan, the 
destruction of the invaders was assured. Their leader relied 
upon the absolute fidelity of the country-folk to the national 
cause, and felt confident that no intelligence of his movements 
would reach the foe until they were completed. He had 
resolved not to try for an entrance into Palermo from the 
side of Monreale, but to move round from the west to the 
south of the city. 

On the dark, rainy evening of May 21 the "Thousand" 
toiled over three mountain-tops to Parco, with their few 
pieces of artillery dismounted and borne on the backs of the 
men, while the picciotti kept the camp-fires blazing above 
Monreale.. 1 During the following day positions fortified by 
entrenchments and guns were occupied along the zigzag 
mountain-road leading up to Piana, six miles further away 
from Palermo. At dawn, on May 23, Garibaldi and General 



©artbalM's /l&arcb on Palermo 317 

Tiirr climbed a summit and viewed the royal troops in camp 
on the plains to the west and north of the city. As they 
looked, a strong column began its march on Monreale, and 
firing continued during the day and into the night, as the picciotti, 
sheltered in the positions left by the " Thousand," impeded 
the advance of the enemy by unceasing irregular musketry. 

On the morning of May 24, Garibaldi saw his antagonist, 
Lanza, with a numerous force, marching against his left flank 
and rear, while another strong body advanced directly on 
Parco. The hostile attack on the left was held in check by 
Tiirr, with his guns and two companies of the " Thousand," 
and at half-past two in the afternoon, by a rapid movement 
in retreat, the whole Garibaldian army was gathered at Piana, 
commanding the Corleone road to the interior. At a council 
of war held in the evening, Garibaldi explained his final plan 
for deceiving and dividing the Neapolitan forces. 

Colonel Orsini, with the artillery and baggage, and an 
escort of fifty men, began an ostentatious retreat along the 
road to Corleone, many miles in the interior. For a short 
distance Garibaldi and his men followed the retiring body, 
and then, in a dense wood, turned ofT into a path that led 
eastward to Misilmeri, south-east of Palermo. The night 
was clear, and Garibaldi and Tiirr, as they rode side by side, 
looked to the constellation of the Great Bear, which the 
Italian patriot had, from a child, connected with his own 
destiny. " General," cried the Hungarian, " it smiles on you. 
We shall enter Palermo." At midnight the little army 
bivouacked in the forest. At four o'clock in the morning of 
May 25 the march was resumed, and, after resting in the 
day at Marineo, the Garibaldians reached Misilmeri at ten at 
night. There they found some thousands of armed peasants 
(the picciotti) and some members of the " Committee of 
Sicilian Liberties," who were instructed to bid their friends 
in Palermo be ready on the morning of the 27th. 

The Bourbon general, completely deceived, had caused 



3i8 1bero ipattlots 

Orsini to be pursued towards Corleone, in the belief that 
his men were following the main body of the invaders, and 
he only learned the truth when it was too late. Garibaldi, 
like a bird of prey preparing to pounce, was hovering, all 
unknown to his enemies, above Palermo, and on the evening 
of May 26, reinforced by many Sicilians, he started with 
about three thousand men from the tableland of Gibilrossa, 
making for the Porta di Termini of Palermo. He had only 
seven hundred and fifty trained and veteran soldiers for 
his daring enterprise, but in his hands, aided by the brave 
Colonel Tukery, by Bixio, Carini, and Tiirr, these few were 
a host. There was no direct road to the city from the starting- 
place, and the men had to clamber down the sides of a ravine 
leading to the valley which opened on the highway. The 
picciotti were sent fleeing by a false alarm on the mountain- 
side, and at half-past one in the morning of the 27th, when 
the force was still three miles from the city, only thirteen 
hundred men remained together. 

The decisive moment came about two hours later, when 
the vanguard of Garibaldi carried with the bayonet the 
Ammiraglio bridge over the Oreto, defended by about four 
hundred men. A strong column of the royal troops advanced 
on the left, but were stopped by a score or two of men 
detached by Tiirr, and the " Thousand," with fixed bayonets, 
rushed for the Termini gate. Even the veterans were stayed 
for a moment by the cross-fire of two guns. Garibaldi 
came up just as Tukery fell mortally wounded, and under 
his eye, in spite of the fire of a battalion of sharpshooters 
from the convent of Sant' Antonio on the left flank, the 
advance continued, and two hundred of his men were soon 
within the city. The people aided the assailants to erect 
barricades as a defence against the enemy's artillery fire, 
and Garibaldi, with some of his men, made his way to the 
centre of Palermo, and established his head-quarters at the 
Palazzo Pretorio. 



Capture of Palermo 319 

The city was now bombarded by the great guns of the 
Neapolitan men-of-war, and by artillery at the fort of 
Castellamare, in the bay, and at the Royal Palace. A fierce 
contest was carried on for three days, the royal troops 
being gradually driven back to the fort, the palace, and one 
or two other positions. The people, in a fury of wrath against 
their tyrants, gave zealous aid to the Garibaldians, arming 
themselves with daggers, spits, and all kinds of iron instruments, 
and working hard day and night to keep the " Thousand " 
supplied with cartridges. On the fourth day, Lanza, the 
king's general, asked for an armistice to bury his dead and 
to convey his wounded on board the fleet. This was the 
beginning of the end for Bourbon power in Palermo. When 
the column which had gone in pursuit of the Garibaldian 
guns and baggage towards Corleone returned, enraged at 
the deceit practised on them, they made a determined attack 
on Porta Termini, and forced back the patriots for some 
distance, but were then checked by the barricades. 

Negotiations with Lanza, opened 1 at his request, and influ- 
enced in favour of the patriots by the arrival of new forces 
from the country, and by the return of Orsini with his guns, 
ended in the evacuation of the city by the royal troops. On 
June 20 the last Bourbon soldier had quitted Palermo, and 
the capital of Sicily, defended by the guns of a fleet, a strong 
fort, and about twenty thousand regular troops, had been won 
by the efforts of a few hundreds of bold invaders, aided by 
peasants and by a body of determined citizens badly armed. 
The conquest of the kingdom of Naples for freedom had 
been well begun, and preparations for conflict on the mainland 
were at once made by the great hero of the enterprise. 

Enlistment commissions were opened at Palermo and in 
every part of the island ; contracts for arms from abroad were 
negotiated ; a foundry for cannon was established, and the 
manufacture of powder and cartridges was incessant. Palermo, 
the drill-ground of despotism, had become a seed-plot of 



320 1bero patriots 

fighters for freedom. The cool hours of the day were spent 
in active drill by the young Sicilians. Reinforcements had 
started from Italy when the news of the first successes of 
the " men of Marsala " arrived. The Medici expedition, 
with three steamers and about two thousand men, arrived 
at Castellamare, a few miles west of Palermo, before the 
Bourbon troops had all embarked. Other contingents followed 
from all the Italian provinces, so that the dictator was able 
to dispatch columns to all parts of Sicily in order to estab- 
lish the new government and to deal with any hostile forces. 
One body, under General Tiirr, marched for the centre of 
the island. The right wing, under Bixio, started for the 
south coast ; the left, under Medici, passed along the north 
coast, gathering volunteers, and with orders to concentrate 
the whole force on the strait of Messina. Colonel Cosenz 
also arrived at Palermo with two thousand men, followed 
by others dispatched by various patriotic committees, the 
head-quarters of which were at Genoa. 

There was to be more fighting on Sicilian ground before the 
invasion of southern Italy was undertaken. The column under 
Colonel Cosenz went towards Messina to support Medici, who 
was threatened by a strong Bourbon force under General 
Bosco, marching from that city, in search of the Garibaldians, 
by way of Spadafora, on the north-east coast. Bosco had 
left his head-quarters with four thousand excellent troops, 
comprising cavalry, infantry, and artillery, in order to keep up 
communications with Milazzo, and to attempt a surprise on 
Medici's corps, occupying Santa Lucia and some neighbour- 
ing villages. He was repulsed in an attack on Medici, and 
then fell back on Milazzo, occupying the plains to the south 
and harassing the whole population. This was the only 
hostile force remaining in Sicily, and Garibaldi resolved to 
be rid of it without delay. He took advantage of Colonel 
Corti's arrival off Palermo with about two thousand men, 
and, transferring a part of them to a British steamer, went 



(Baribalbi at /HMla330 321 

on board himself, reached Patti, a small town on the north 
coast about twenty miles south-west of Milazzo, and thence 
joined Medici and Cosenz, with the determination to attack 
the Bourbon forces at dawn on the next day. 

On July 20 the patriotic army engaged General Bosco, 
who was barring the chief road to Messina, to the south of 
Milazzo, having that town and its fortress as his base of 
operations. The position of Garibaldi's foes was much 
stronger than his own. Bosco had taken able advantage of 
every natural or artificial obstacle on the battle-field. His 
right, Echeloned in front of the strong fortress, was protected 
by its heavy guns and covered in front by several hedges 
of cactus, forming excellent entrenchments from behind which 
Bosco's chasseurs, a fine body of men provided with good 
carbines, could fire into the badly armed ranks of their oppo- 
nents. The Bourbon centre, with its reserves, was on the 
road leading along the shore to Milazzo, and had its front 
covered by a strong boundary-wall loopholed in many places. 
The front of this wall was protected by a piece of ground 
thickly overgrown with canes, making a front attack almost 
impossible. Bosco's left, occupying a line of houses east of 
Milazzo, formed a right angle with the centre, and could 
thus pour in a flanking fire on any force attacking that 
position. The Garibaldian forces were ignorant of the 
ground, and much needless loss was thereby incurred. 

The battle began only at broad daylight, Garibaldi making 
a vigorous attack with the bulk of his force on the enemy's 
centre and left. Many of the patriots fell, and the rest 
were driven back without even seeing their enemy on ground 
encumbered with trees, vines, and cane plantations. An 
obstinate conflict was maintained all the morning. By noon 
Garibaldi's left wing had fallen back some miles ; his right 
and centre were holding out with difficulty. His men were 
wearied, while the enemy, having suffered trifling loss, were 
fresh and exultant, with ranks unbroken and in formidable 

21 



322 1bero patriots 

positions. Success appeared hopeless when Garibaldi, bidding 
Medici, in the centre, hold out as long as he could, went 
off to collect some scattered forces with the view of making 
a diversion on the enemy's left wing, to the east of Milazzo. 
This was the turning point of the day. 

The Bourbon troops, assailed in flank behind their en- 
trenchments, began to waver, and Garibaldi, charging boldly 
with his men, captured a gun which had been working great 
mischief by ricochet-firing with grapeshot along the road. The 
Bourbon cavalry supporting the gun made a brilliant charge, 
driving back the patriots, so that Garibaldi was passed by the 
advancing horsemen, and was obliged to throw himself into a 
ditch at the side of the road, where he defended himself, 
sword in hand, against one of the riders. He was soon 
relieved from his dangerous position. Colonel Missori, coming 
up at the head of the men who had captured the gun, shot 
the cavalry-man with his revolver. Then the Garibaldians 
rallied and drove the enemy in headlong flight towards 
Milazzo. Their centre was turned and the victory was soon 
complete. The heavy guns of the fortress opened fire to 
cover the retreat, but the exulting victors, amidst a hail of 
grapeshot, attacked the town, and at nightfall were masters of 
the place. The fort was surrounded on all sides, and 
barricades were raised in the streets exposed to its fire. The 
loss of the Garibaldians was about a thousand in killed 
and wounded, the former including Poggi, an officer of the 
Genoese carbineers, who had fought most bravely at Calatafimi. 
On July 24 the Bourbon troops, packed together in the 
fortress, surrendered the place, and the patriots were thus 
in possession of all Sicily except the fortresses of Messina, 
Agosta, and Syracuse. 

Garibaldi promptly marched his men to the shores of the 
Strait of Messina. The town had been occupied without 
resistance by Medici, and the two columns from the interior 
joined the main force, making up a fourth division under 



6aribalM Enters Wtaples 323 

Cosenz. A small fleet of steamers had been acquired, 
including the Veloce, a Bourbon war-ship brought over by its 
commander Anguissola, and renamed the Tukery, after the 
gallant leader of the vanguard, slain at the entry of Palermo. 
Sicily thus subdued for freedom, the two Calabrias and Naples 
were awaiting the advent of the patriots, and a landing was 
effected "at Melito, on the south coast of Calabria, in the last 
week of August. Garibaldi was with this pioneer force, and 
he marched northwards for Reggio, with a hostile squadron 
watching his movements. After some fighting outside the 
town, the forts of Reggio were surrendered, affording the 
invaders a base of operations with a vast quantity of provisions 
and ammunition. In the morning the corps of General Ghio, 
commanding at Reggio, was pursued and forced to capitulate 
with a number of field-batteries. All the forts commanding the 
Strait of Messina were given up by the Bourbon troops, on 
whom the conquest of Sicily had produced a moral impression 
which made the rest of Garibaldi's great enterprise a com- 
paratively easy task. 

A triumphal march through the Calabrian provinces was 
made, with swift progress amongst the enthusiastic plaudits 
of a martial population, many of whom were already in arms 
against the Bourbon oppressor. The Neapolitan troops were 
panic-stricken. At Soveria, General Vial's division of about 
eight thousand men laid down their arms. Caldarelli's 
brigade and Morelli's column surrendered at Cosenza, in 
northern Calabria, and on September 7, after a hasty 
journey from Reggio, always keeping ahead of the main body 
of his troops, Garibaldi made his entry into Naples. His 
fame had preceded him, and with a small staff he passed 
through the midst of the Bourbon troops still in occupation, 
who presented arms to him with far more respect than they 
did, at that time, to their own generals. 

The history of the world scarcely offers a parallel to the 
achievements which had brought this marvellous man, a son 



324 1bero patriots 

of the people, in his swift course of victory from Marsala 
to the capital of the tyrant whom he overthrew, a city con- 
taining half a million of people, which he entered in perfect 
safety, while his army was yet a great way off, and with the 
Bourbon forces, paralysed by fear, still possessed of all the 
forts and of the chief points in the great town. The King 
of Naples had, on the previous day, left his palace for Capua, 
and the royal nest, still warm, was occupied by the liberators 
of the people. At three o'clock in the afternoon of that great 
day, September 7, i860, Garibaldi virtually signed his own 
act of abdication of dictatorial power in a decree by which 
he handed over the entire Neapolitan fleet to Admiral Persano 
for the King of Italy, together with the arsenal and the 
command of the forts. At that time, Victor Emmanuel's 
fleet consisted of only five frigates — three screws and two 
paddle-wheels — and some small vessels of little naval value. 
The splendid gift to his sovereign made by " the cabin-boy 
of Nice " added to that petty squadron ninety vessels, carrying 
seven hundred and eighty-six guns, with a complement of 
over seven thousand sailors. Of these ships twenty-seven were 
steamers, including a vessel of sixty guns, and eleven were 
ten-gun frigates. Of the sixty sailing-ships or more, the largest 
carried eighty guns, and there were five frigates with an average 
of fifty guns as armament. 

Here we must take farewell of Garibaldi's career of victory 
for his beloved Italy. We have no space for any account 
of his twelve hours' battle on the Volturno, near Capua, on 
October 1, ending in his success, with a loss to his force of 
over two thousand men. He sent a telegram to Naples with 
the stirring words, " Victory all along the line," and ended his 
glorious course by another victory a day later, at Caserta 
Vecchia, leaving then to the Italian "Army of the North" the 
easy work of completing the annihilation of Bourbonism in 
"the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies." He soon returned to 
his solitude at Caprera. With his political doings ; his rash 



(Baribal&i as <3eneral 325 

enterprise against the French garrison at Rome, ending in 
his defeat, with a severe wound in the foot, by Italian forces 
at Aspromonte, a mountain near Reggio, in August, 1862; 
his splendid reception in England in 1864; his share in the 
campaign of 1866 against Austria ; his defeat by French 
forces at Mentana, a village twelve miles north-east of Rome, 
in 1867, when he made another attempt to drive Louis 
Napoleon's garrison from the city; and with the part which 
he played, on the French side, in the great Franco-German 
War of 1870, we are not here concerned. It is as the 
hero-patriot who struck so ably and so hard, and wrought so 
much for the freedom and unity of his native country, that 
we now contemplate Garibaldi ; and enough has been written 
concerning his achievements to account for his splendid 
and enduring fame. 

As a leader of men in the field of war, Garibaldi was no 
strategist. He knew little and cared less about organisation, 
discipline, equipment, commissariat, or transport. His wonder- 
ful success was largely due to the supreme influence which 
his person and presence exercised over the minds and hearts 
of his followers. In the force which he led, there was little 
order, but ever blind and passive obedience to his command. 
To make anything possible, he had but to will and to 
command, and he never failed to find men ready and willing 
to attempt it. If he asked for a score or two of troops for 
a particular enterprise, the whole battalion would rush forward. 
The great Italian was, however, a good tactician, with the 
sure glance, quick resolution, and prompt resource of his 
townsman Massena, Napoleon's "enfant gate de la victoire" 
On this head we may well take the testimony of an opponent, 
a very competent judge, one of the able German commanders 
against whom Garibaldi fought in 1870. General ManteurTel, 
in his history of the Franco-German War, declares that 
" Garibaldi's tactics were specially characterised by the great 
rapidity of his movements, by the sapient dispositions made 



326 1bero patriots 

under fire during the combat, and by his energy and intensity 
in attack." 

Garibaldi, as he was one of the most brilliant, was also, in 
his personal appearance on the field of battle, one of the most 
picturesque leaders of his class in history. None could fail 
to admire and to be inspired by the sight, and by the 
clear, ringing, silver voice, of the man of lion-like face, who 
sat his horse with perfect ease and calm, as if grown to the 
saddle, in his simple, tasteful garb of plain red shirt and grey 
trousers, over which were the folds of the Spanish-American 
poncho ', an ample upper garment of thin white woollen cloth 
with crimson lining, serving as a standard round which his 
volunteers rallied in the thickest press of battle. His sword 
was a fine cavalry-blade, forged in England, and the gift of 
English friends. With this weapon, good at need for slash- 
ing in the fight, the hero might be seen at his early breakfast 
on the tented field, cutting his bread and slicing his Bologna 
sausage. 

Of Garibaldi's character as a patriot and a warrior, the 
great French historian Michelet wrote: "There is one hero 
in Europe — one ! I do not know a second. All his life 
is a romance ; and since he had the greatest reasons for 
hatred to France, who had stolen his Nice, caused him 
to be fired upon at Aspromonte, fought against him at 
Mentana, you guess that it was this man who flew [during 
the Franco-German War] to immolate himself for France. 
And how modestly withal ! Nothing mattered it to him 
that he was placed in obscure posts quite unworthy of him. 
Grand man, my Garibaldi ! my single hero ! Always loftier 
than fortune ! How sublimely does his memory rise and 
swell towards the future ! " It is the highest glory of 
this most single-minded and disinterested, this least self- 
conscious of all mankind, that he was devoid of rancour 
and malice ; the most loving, the least hating of men, taking 
no vengeance on those who had insulted and wronged him 



(BartbatM in ff>o\>erts 327 

and then fallen into his hands, trembling for their lives ; 
one whose foes may be defied to trace to him an act of 
meanness, a cruel deed, even a word of deliberate unkindness. 

Our last hero-patriot survived by ten years the great 
apostle of Italian unity and freedom, Mazzini, who died 
in 1872. When the news reached Caprera, Garibaldi's 
tribute to his " dead friend and teacher " took the form 
of the highest honour which he could pay to mortal man, 
one which he never rendered to any other than Mazzini. 
He telegraphed to Genoa " Let the colours of the ' Thousand ' 
float over the bier of the Grand Italian." During his later 
years he suffered much from bodily pain. The bullet of 
Aspromonte, by crippling his foot, had ruined the general 
health of one who had hitherto warned off or cured the 
cruel attacks of rheumatism by severe and constant bodily 
exercise. 

He could with difficulty obtain the means of living, yet 
in 1875 ne declined the gift of a million of francs (nearly 
forty thousand pounds), and an annual pension of fifty 
thousand francs, assigned to him by the Italian Parliament. 
Offers of assistance poured in on every side from munici- 
palities, working-men's societies, and wealthy individuals, as 
soon as the straitened means of "the donor of two realms" 
became known. He accepted some of these money-gifts, and 
finally, in 1876, he was induced, with the utmost reluctance, 
to accept the national award. Nothing if not honest and 
generous, Garibaldi at once paid every farthing of debt 
incurred by any member of the family, pensioned his wife, 
his eldest daughter and little ones, and placed in the hands 
of his old friend the patriotic Luigi Orlando, head of a great 
ship-building firm of Leghorn, a sum sufficient to prevent 
impending bankruptcy, thus, as Garibaldi urged when the 
loan was at first declined, " serving the interests of hundreds 
of working-men, who will be reduced to starvation if your 
dockyard is closed." Within three months, the timely loan 



328 1bero patriots 

was repaid, and the Orlando ship-building yard became one 
of the first in Europe, turning out the Lepanto and other 
huge ironclads for the Italian navy. 

When he made his last appearance at Milan, in 1880, for 
the inauguration of the monument to the patriots who fell 
at Mentana, all who loved him were shocked to see the 
ravages which disease had made in a single year. The crowd 
followed him in silence as he passed along, stretched on 
his tent-bed, in an open carriage, with hair now white, and 
livid face. In the spring of 1882, he visited Sicily, and, 
as he passed through Messina, a scene of his triumph in i860, 
the people were struck dumb by the sight of the spectre of 
his former self, and welcomed him only with outstretched 
arms, tearful and stricken to the heart with sorrow. He re- 
embarked for Caprera on April 17, and on the night 
of June 1 the news, " He is dying," arrived in Italy. On 
the afternoon of the following day, he lay silently gazing on 
the sea, his first and last love, from the open window, while 
two finches were gaily singing on the sill. As he watched 
them, he murmured, " May be they are the souls of my little 
ones come to call me. Feed them when I am gone." Again 
his eyes rested on the sky, the sea, and the faces of his dear 
ones. His last look was for his " best-beloved " Menotti, 
and at twenty-two minutes past six in the evening of June 2, 
1882, the eagle eyes were sightless, the voice that had been 
as that of a trumpet was hushed, the " loving lion-heart " had 
ceased to beat. 

The dead hero's own desire and command had been for 
his remains to be burned in the open air in a fire of acacia, 
myrtle, linden, and other aromatic woods, at a certain spot 
between his house and the sea. He bade his wife have his 
body consumed by fire before the news of his death could 
reach the continent. Neither she nor Menotti, however, felt 
able to assume such a responsibility ; and Garibaldi, in death, 
was disobeyed, amid the angry protest of the elements, which 

RD-l 81 



(Baribalfct's Monument 329 

raised, on the day of his burial, a storm of almost unequalled 
fury at Caprera on sea and land. 

The Garibaldians of Nice, a numerous, industrious, and 
much-respected body, go yearly, each wearing a tiny silver 
lion as the badge of membership of the Mazzini Republican 
Club, with the Italian-hearted population, in procession to 
the grave of Garibaldi's mother on Castle Hill. A marble 
monument is there, dedicated, in an English version of the 
inscription, to " Joseph Garibaldi, foremost knight of humanity, 
the greatest hero of the nineteenth century." The "cabin- 
boy of Nice," as he was styled in scorn by his mean detractors 
now passed into oblivion, and was proudly and tenderly 
remembered by his countless admirers, was most expressively 
mourned by the women of Naples, as, weeping, wailing, and 
tearing their hair, they chanted as a dirge 

"E morto Galubardo; 
E morto lu mio bel ; " 

or, 

" Dead is Garibaldi ; my beauteous one is dead." 



Printed by Hasell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 




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